Azalea E Potter: The Lightning Thief
by ImposterInDisguise
Summary: Azalea Potter, the daughter of Poseidon the sea god and the chosen one to the wizarding world, yeah this should be fun. Rated T because I'm a very cautious and paranoid person. Female Harry
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note: So this is the first story I've ever written so if you have advice, ideas, or anything else go ahead and tell me, but please don't be mean or rude about it. The story starts out kind of dark I know but this is just so I can get her to Sally, so it won't always be like this.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Except for one person, Private Drive was a completely ordinary place full of completely ordinary people. A little girl known to the world as Azalea Elizabeth Potter was that exception. She was the young niece to one Petunia and Vernon Dursley something they expressed no pride in the exact opposite in fact.

Azalea Potter was the tender age of four and had never known a kind word. She lived under the stairs in a cupboard that held a small mattress and many spiders. Her Aunt and Uncle never even used her name, preferring to call her freak or girl instead, and encouraged their darling son Dudley to do the same. It was by chance that she had learned her name, if she hadn't always been sitting near Dudley when Vernon tried to teach him how to read, a very useless endeavor it seemed, then she would have never learned how to read by sheer stubbornness.

And if it hadn't been for the fact the only blanket she had for her small thin mattress was her baby blanket, that oddly enough looked as new as the day it was knitted, then she would have never learned it. For there on the corner of the blanket knitted in was the name Azalea E. Potter.

Reading had been a very hard thing to learn not only for the fact she had no one to ask for help when she got stuck, but also because at times the words would start to rearrange themselves or float off the page. She knew this wasn't normal and she would never tell the Dursley's they would think it was another freakish thing about her, so she worked past it not wanting to get punished for it.

She already had gotten punished many times for her inability to stay still to the point that she had learned to control her own fidgeting. She still felt the urge to move and the energy moving in her body, making her want to run as fast as she could to use some of it, but she controlled herself. She had gotten rather good at it and had learned how to observe her environment and people instead as a way of occupying herself.

Unlike Dudley, Azalea had chores, they varied all the time mostly due to her age. For a four year old she was a rather good cook and it was one of the few chores she enjoyed besides gardening, though she barely ever got to do that since the neighbors would start to talk.

One chore she liked the best though was cleaning the attic. She rarely ever got to do it but when she did she always found something interesting. Petunia refused to go upstairs in the attic with her to watch her clean because of how hot and dusty it was in there.

Cleaning out boxes and organizing them was always enjoyable it was like opening up a long forgotten memory box and sorting through all the surprises left behind. She found lots of odd things old clothes, broken toys, dishes, decorations, dusty books, and other stuff. There was one thing, though, that she found one day that made her heart skip a beat.

It was a photo album.

Inside there were faded pictures of strangers she had never met and never would. One picture caught her eye though it had three young girls in it all around the age of 15. The one on the far right seemed to be a much younger version of Aunt Petunia, on the far left was another girl she looked nothing like the other two and had dark black hair a loving smile and blue eyes.

But…

The one in the middle looked familiar a face that Elizabeth had seen look back at her many times from a mirror. The only real difference was the hair, which unlike her own dark ebony black was a blazing red, and the eyes, even if it was hard to tell. The girls eyes where a light green unlike Azalea who had a sea green instead, though they at times seemed to change color depending on her moods, if they were strong enough.

On the back read Petunia and Lily Evens with Sally Jackson. That was her mom one thing Petunia had made sure to explain to her was that her mother and father, Lilly and James Potter, were no good drunks that had died in a car crash leaving her to burden the Dursleys. It was amazing seeing her mom for the first time in her life, and pulling the picture out of the book she made sure she would always be able to see it.

There was another great thing about the picture though. Ever since she was old enough to understand the intentions and feelings behind the Dursley's actions she had hoped someone would appear to take her away. Seeing the other person in the picture strengthen her hope that maybe one day she would come and visit and then take her away with her.

It was days later when it happened with the picture tucked away in Dudley's oversized pants that the girl wore and thoughts of escape far from her mind.

It was an accident really, a mistake she made when she was dusting the living room as the Dursleys sat and watched TV. She was cleaning a very expensive vase that was placed on a table in the living room when her hand slipped.

And with a large cracking noise it shattered across the floor into millions of pieces.

The silence that followed the noise was terrifying; the only noise to be found was the droning voice of someone talking on the TV. Then like an explosion from an atom bomb the sound caught up.

"GIRL!" roared uncle Vernon as he jumped to his feet, purpled faced from his anger. "YOU'VE DONE IT THIS TIME!" with that he moved as fast as his large form would allow him towards her.

Azalea wasn't a fool if she was then she would have long ago starved to death from the Dursley's one piece of bread meal they gave her. Her survival instincts were unusually developed for someone her age as was her intelligence. So when uncle Vernon lumbered towards her she knew that she had to run. Vernon punished her all the time for things that, most of the time, she didn't do or just for the sake of trying to beat IT out of her whatever IT was. So she knew if he caught her this time she probably wouldn't survive.

With her heartbeat thudding in her ears she used all of the pent up energy in her body to run and run she did. Vernon easily fell behind as she moved unnaturally fast dashing through the living room out into the hallway. Running up to the front door and unlocking it she pulled only for the door to stop with a sudden jerk. Glancing up she could see the deadbolt was in place and far out of her reach, and the space between the door and the wall was too small for her to squeeze through.

"GET BACK HERE YOU UNGRATEFULL FREAK!" was screamed from behind her. Twisting around she saw Uncle Vernon come around the living rooms entrance. An ugly grin came across his face when he saw her.

"Trapped and nowhere to go it seems eh girl, I've got you now."

Ignoring him she looked for another escape, it was too much of a risk to run past him so there was only one way left to go. With that in mind she dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She was moving so fast that she fell on the steps her chin and elbow colliding with the hard wooden step.

Vernon let out a trumped laugh as he lunged forward at her. She felt his hand start to encircle her ankle and without thinking she began to kick frantically. With a solid thump her foot hit the side of his arm causing Vernon to become unbalanced, his arms flailing widely, unable to stop his large body from falling. With loud thumping noises he rolled down the steps crashing to the bottom in a giant heap.

Scrambling up the steps on her hands and knees and ignoring the throbbing in her jaw and elbow, that were sure to bruise, she reached the top of the steps. She ran through the hallway until she reached the chain that hung down from the ceiling that led to the attic.

Jumping up she grabbed it hanging from it from it until gravity pulled it down with her body. Stairs slid smoothly out of it leading to a trap door as Vernon stumbled up the last of the steps.

"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" Vernon yelled as he started to limp down the hallway.

With a panicked gasp Azalea ran up the attic steps pushing the trap door open and climbing inside. She began to pull the steps up behind her when they jerked to a stop a fat meaty hand held onto the bottom rung pulling them back down.

Unable to hold it she let go which caused Uncle Vernon to let out an angry yell as he fell down from the stairs suddenly giving away. Shoving the trap door shut she began to push and pile boxes on top of it in an attempt to keep Uncle Vernon from opening it.

Scrambling to a corner in the attic she sat there with her knees to her chest her arms wrapped around them watching the boxes on the attic door begin to shake.

"GIRL YOU OPEN THIS RIGHT NOW! JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU'LL WISH YOU'D NEVER BEEN BORN FREAK!"

Slowly the boxes began to fall off allowing the door to rise up more after each hit. Azalea let out a soft sob terrified of what Uncle Vernon punishment would be when he finally got her.

Pulling her mother's picture out of her pocket she held it close like it could shield her from her Uncle's wrath. Looking down at it she stared at her mother's smiling face as tears splashed onto the photo. Turning her eyes onto Sally, the stranger in the picture, she wished with all her might that she could be with kind looking women and away from her Uncle and Aunt.

With a crash Vernon managed to throw all the boxes off the trap door making them slide and tumble off and spill their continent across the floor. With an angry growl he climbed through the door and began to limp to Azalea.

"No were to go now girl." He snarled reaching out to grab her. Azalea closed her eyes and curled further into herself while holding the picture to her chest. Tears ran down her face as she sobbed "No…nononononono please I'm sorry no."

She just wanted to be safe for once with someone who didn't hate her for being born, was that too much to ask for? Thinking of the women in the picture she couldn't help but to want to be with her. 'Sally… I-I wish I was with Sally'.

And with a soft pop Azalea Potter disappeared from the attic of number 4 Private Drive leaving a furious Vernon behind who could only scream in rage as his hand closed on empty air. Far away, across the ocean and in a small apartment found in New York City, America a young girl appeared landing on the couch beside one Sally Jackson.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: I'm so happy now people actually like my story, so thank you all! I'm giving you guys another chapter so soon because I didn't really count the first chapter a real chapter, it was more the intro. I'm going to update this every week, I know that's for sure, but if I get ahead of my chapters when I'm writing them then I'll update upload early.

Thank you: KaggyAlucardSesh, percyjacksonfan135, Padfootette, 917brat, Raven Marcus, candinaru25, for reviewing.

And 917brat: I should have explained it more I guess but Azalea is going to be a combined version of a female Harry Potter and Female Percy Jackson, so she lives in both worlds. :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Sally Jackson was having a very ordinary day and like most people was following her daily schedule. She had no reason to suspect that anything different would happen today, so imagine her surprise when a little girl who looked barley older than three appeared beside her with a soft pop, when she was sitting on her couch.

Now Sally had experienced many things that weren't ordinary in her life that no one else seemed to notice, like there was something stopping them. She had seen men that only have one eye, people carrying old weapons like swords in broad daylight, half goat people that she could only guess were satyr, and odd animals that always had something wrong with them like an extra limb of some sort that half the time was from another animal.

She had long ago accepted this since it was either that or admit that she was mad, and she liked to think she was sane. But then again, she had just seen a little girl appear in her apartment, and that was something she didn't think was normal.

The girl was sobbing in a curled up position shaking in fear while she murmured fearfully "No I-I'm sorry p-please please." And even if the girl had appeared mysteriously in her apartment Sally couldn't just let her continue crying so fearfully without helping her.

So she softly put a hand on the girls shoulder "Shush sweetie it's alright ok, now stop that crying your safe with me alright honey?"

Azalea had been expecting many things but that was defiantly not one of them. The voice was not Uncle Vernon's and neither were the words that came out, that was for sure. So looking up she could only freeze in surprise when she saw the lady from the picture.

Though she had aged some she still looked as beautiful as before and that kind smile was still present on her face. With a louder sob Azalea launched herself into Sally's arms crying into her chest as Sally held her close shushing her while petting her hair comfortingly.

"I w-was so s-sacred and I-I had to g-get away U-Uncle Vernon, was so… so mad a-a-and and I just wanted to be s-safe." She sobbed into her chest.

'Uncle Vernon… Vernon that name sounds familiar like the man Petunia got married to he had a horrible temper, not much of a looker too.'

"It's ok sweetie what's your name? Mines Sally Jackson." Sally soothingly said.

"My names Azalea … Azalea Potter."

Sally froze in surprise that was Lilly last name and didn't she name her kid Azalea but that meant that this might be her…

"You... you knew my mom right, Lilly? I-I found a photo of you two with Aunt Petunia and I, well I guess I wanted to meet you and I-I" how was she suppose to explain that she wanted to live with her instead Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, what if she said no and sent her back to them they were already so angry at her.

"You're Lilly's child? But- but why are you crying and how did you get here?"

"It was an accident I swear I was doing my chores and was dusting while Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley watched TV when I knocked over the vase. I swear I didn't mean to. And Uncle Vernon was so mad I-I just ran, I didn't want to get punished again cause I knew it would be real bad this time and I made it up to the attic but I was trapped. So-so I wished I was with you, Sally the kind looking lady in the picture, and I guess Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were right about me being a freak since I showed up beside you. But please-please don't send me back to then I'm sorry for being a freak, just don't send me back."

Sally could only stare at the girl in shock after she had explained everything. Punishments and chores for little girl, what kind of people act like that? And how could they tell Azalea she was a freak those people, those-those assholes.' There were not many times in Sally's life that she could ever remember being truly angry and this was one of those times because this time she was furious beyond furious in fact.

"Azalea sweetie calm down I won't make you go back to THOSE people don't worry honey. Everything's alright now and I'll make sure you don't go back to them."

"You promise?"

"I Promise"

Sally stayed true to her promise making sure Azalea stayed with her and never went back to the Dursely's. All it took was one long distance phone call and Petunia was more than happy to send all of Azalea's papers over and sign her guardianship over to Sally. She was in her words "Glad to be rid of that brat." And after some legal fiasco Azalea Potter was now know as a US citizen under the guardianship of one Sally Jackson.

Years later we find a ten year old Azalea Potter on a bus heading to a Metropolitan Museum of Art to in Manhattan.

So hello my name is Azalea I prefer Liz though or Lizzy, after my middle name Elizabeth, whichever floats your boat. And I go to the wonderful Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York, can you feel the love I have for the school?

Am I a troubled kid?

Well that's a rude question and I'd thank you for not asking, or I might have teach you the meaning behind the words 'as silent as the grave'.

See I'm not troubled, well that is unless you count the fact I'm rather good at obtaining items that at the time might have been in somebody's else's procession and also opening things that some people might wish to stay close. But that's not why I'm in this school, since I have skill when it comes to those two things, but I'll explain later since patience is a virtue.

So anyway, right now we are going on this wonderful field trip to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. Which I was ok with, since first of all I actually loved Greek history and read tons of books about it since it was an interesting subject, and I got out of school and anything involving no school is a good thing to me.

Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip so that made it even better.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair, a scruffy beard, and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. I personally dislike coffee even if I'm forbidden to drink it apparently no one wants to see me more hyper though I do like the smell so it wasn't that bad. But you're probably wondering what's so great about him? Well he tells stories and jokes and lets us play games in class.

He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, sharp pointy shiny weapons he lets us have mock fights with. Any teacher who lets you pick up and fight with a sword in his class is my kind of teacher.

So anyway getting back to my reason of being in this school for troubled kids since you've been very patient so far, well you see bad things happen around me sometimes.

Well not bad exactly, just odd. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went on the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I swear I wasn't aiming for the bus, well I might have been, but who keeps a damn cannon loaded around children, well to cut a story short I got expelled, the assholes. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we went on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. I happened to think the sharks were adorable and they had acted like over grown cats when it came to me, the rest of the class strongly disagreed.

And before that well lets just say putting a bunch of shiny buttons and levers in the reach of a third grader is always a bad idea. Especially when you're at the zoo and those shiny buttons and levers are the controls to the animal cages. And that third grader just happens to open all those cages, and well yeah animal freedom anybody haha...ha?

Anyway some of you might be wondering why someone as young as mio is in the fifth grade, well for all my um… accidents it just so happens I am one smart cookie. Meaning I've skipped a couple grades, two to be precise, guess the Dursley's always trying to dumb me down made me want to be smart just to spite them, or it was the fact I didn't want to be anything like Dudley.

In all reality the reason I'm so smart is probably because to me reading was a way of getting rid of my excess energy that or sketching and painting or even tinkering with things, I've figured out how many things work that way. And how to make a lot of bombs cause art is a bang ya? As it so happens I'm not trusted enough to be alone apparently it makes people nervous of what I'm doing.

This trip though I'm determined to be a saint, so no explosions for me.

I even put up with Nancy Bobofit the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-ketchup sandwich. Girl has problems.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy bird on his chin. Which was ok with me as long as it wasn't a dirt stache, cause I will come at you with a razor if I see that on your upper lip. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him on enchilada day in the cafeteria, because damn that boy can run.

Anyway, Nancy Bobfit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster threatened me with death by in-school suspension, le-gasp the horror, if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip. This suspension threat was caused by an accident that happened, that involved me being unsupervised for awhile. Were I decided to spend my time on trying to figure out what would happen if you put certain things in a microwave, all in the name of science of course, and completely necessary. The Headmaster happens to disagree.

"I'm going to kill her. I have it all planned out I'll use a rusty spoon and then we'll hide her body by burning it, preferably using an explosion. After all of that we'll replace her with a monkey we dressed up as her and no one will be able to tell the difference mwahahah!" I said in my best evil voice.

Grover only snorted "That's a great evil genius's plan you got there but lets save that one for a rainy day, okay? And besides it's okay. I like peanut butter."

Grover dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"With ketchup? Me thinks you are lying sir Grover and with that being said it's time to go smack a hoe." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"Calm you're pimping hand Liz, you're already on probation," he reminds me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens, especially if someone goes around smacking people while calling them hoes, since you've done it before."

I only looked at him solemnly saying "Hoes gotta learn respect." It wasn't my fault if that class full of idiots was full of hoes talking about other people's looks so rudely. Someone needed to teach them respect and who better to do it then a pimp such as myself?

Mr. Brunner led our lovely tour through the museum.

He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past the marble statues, and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years. Hell I couldn't make anything made of glass that I own last more than a month without a crack appearing on it, and I know that because I have tried and failed as well.

He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was interesting, but everyone else didn't share the same sentiment and wouldn't shut up, the other chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would only glance at me occasionally but didn't help me on my quest of knowledge.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who had a fetish for wearing black leather jackets, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley into your locker or you. She had come to Yancy halfway through the school year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

And I swear it was an accident how was I suppose to know she would react that way to the lizards or spiders or even the fireworks display, I mean who doesn't like explosions I never meant to cause a nervous breakdown.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobfit and figured I was the devil spawn. She used to point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now honey," real sweet, and I'd know I was going to get after-school detention for a month.

This would have continued if it wasn't for one day when coming out of Latin I got into a fight with Nancy who was making fun a of Greek god. Hades to be more specific and let me tell you one thing while I liked other gods a lot Hades was always one of my personal favorites I mean he was badass. Not only that but he got screwed over on lots of things that I didn't think were fair. I mean not only did he get cheated when him and his brothers were picking domains but he got banished to live by himself. And when he finally got a wife she doesn't love him back, well he did kidnap her so that one was his fault but still, and he can only see her for all the winter months. Now I'm not saying he's a saint but come on neither are all the other gods.

So I told Nancy my opinion on her claims about Hades being a weirdo creepo and Mrs. Dodds happened to be standing outside of the class and heard everything that happened. She didn't even seem that upset when I punched Nancy in the face for calling Hades a freak which was a very touchy word when it came to me. She only gave me a half-hour long detention of wiping down her chalk board which only took three minutes. After that she seemed to take a very strong dislike towards Nancy and a neutral view on my existence that at times went into mild liking.

Mr. Brunner kept talking about the Greek funeral art.

Finally Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around whispering angrily "Will you shut up." Though it may have been more of a angry growl and it didn't come out as quite as quiet as I hoped.

Ya maybe a lot louder than I expected.

The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. Of course he heard me but not the other ten kids that had been talking.

"Miss Potter," he said. "did you have a comment?"

My eyes went wide in surprise. I said "It's a very pretty stele?"

Mr. Brunner only sighed and pointed to one of the pictures on the stele "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I looked at the carving, and felt a rush of relief, Greek history was my jam along with a couple of other things, and I easily recognized this picture. "That's the King of the Titans, Kronos, eating his kids, the Gods."

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"

Jeez I didn't know we were playing 20 questions he could have at least worded the question differently if he wanted me to explain that.

"Kronos was the King of the Titans, and he heard a prophecy about how one of his children would defeat him. So when his wife had a child also known as a god he would swallow him or her. This continued until one day when giving birth to Zeus, she replaced him with a rock and gave him that instead. Zeus grew up only to later come to his father and trick him into drinking a mixture made of mustard and wine that made him throw up,"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me, really throw up makes you say eeew?

"-the rest of his children who being gods survived in his stomach, growing up in there. There was then a war between the Titans and gods which ended with the gods defeating their own father, sliced to pieces by his own scythe, and the remains then being thrown into Tartarus, the darkest place in the Underworld."

There was a stunned silence from the group, see I was a smart cookie.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're ever going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Miss. Potter," Mr. Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover mumbled.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.

I thought about his question, shit I got nothing time to bullshit my way through this.

"It's helpful for the fact that it teaches you… prophecies screw over everyone always and trying to stop something from happening only makes it worse."

Mr. Brunner looked thoughtful for a few seconds before he spoke, "Well while there is truth in those words Miss. Potter that's not exactly the answer I was looking for so half-credit. On that wonderful note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted away, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around, acting like morons.

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Miss. Potter."

"I swear I didn't do it, I mean how was I supposed to know that would happen when I pulled the switch, it probably wasn't that expensive anyway?"

Mr. Brunner raised his eye brow in interest as he calmly said, "That wasn't what I was going to talk to you about, but I would like to know what you did that makes you feel the need to defend yourself so fiercely."

"What? I never said anything, and I never defended myself about anything. Maybe you thought you heard me do that since, but I've been with you this whole time and never left the group. I would never do anything bad."

Mr. Brunner only raised his looked at me skeptically.

Grover only looked between the two of us until I told him to keep going and that I'd meet up with him later. Then I turned towards Mr. Brunner. "So sir, what do we need to talk about?"

"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.

"Ok?" Wow what in the hell is he talking about?

"Miss. Potter you need to learn my question about real life, and how your studies apply to it."

"Ahhh"

"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. And I hope you remember that."

I mumbled something about how I would take his lessons to heart and other crap like that and then made my hasty retreat, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.

He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.

The class gathered to the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Because there's nothing like eating and staring unblinkingly at someone while taking bites of a sandwich as they walk by, I don't get why they keep glancing at me so nervously while I do it though.

Overhead, a huge storm was ah brewing, with clouds blacker then I'd ever seen over the city. Huh must be global warming, we'd been having weather like this since Christmas. We'd been having massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hurricane blowing in.

Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons, the poor diseased rats, with lunchable crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from an old lady's purse.

Grover and I sat at the edge of the fountain, away from the others. Ya know so maybe they'd think we weren't from that school, the same thing you would do when you're out in public and someone you know starts to act like an idiot on purpose to embarrass you.

I pulled out my lunch, my rather large lunch since I love foods and I've taken a strong liking to cooking though I can't do that at Yancy they don't trust me in the kitchen. I personally thought the 'No Azalea Potter' sign on the door was a bit much.

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my Aunt's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that even if she loves me more than anything, I need my education and I had to try harder to not have so many accidents. Even if this was my fourth school in four years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I can't stand when she's even a little disappointed in me.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair making it look like a motorized café table.

I was about to unwrap my sandwich, a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich, when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her shall we say very ugly friends-I guess she got tired of stealing from defenseless old ladies since their such hard targets- and dumped half of her lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckled were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid cheetos. Ohh that would be good with some crackers, so yummy, no focus.

I tried to stay cool, but Grover's my best friend so fuck that. The school councilors voice rang through my head, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I don't have a god damn temper; I just feel the need to inform people of how I thought of them. I wasn't an idiot I could control myself and my mouth when I have to. As the saying goes though, 'It's not that I hate people, I just hate stupid people.' But this was my best friend so my anger just filled me making my mind go blank. A wave roared in my ears.

The next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her but in the fountain, screaming, "Azalea pushed me!"

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"

"-the water-"

"-like it grabbed her-"

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew that I was in trouble, again.

Mrs. Dodds glanced at Nancy and seeing that she was alright turned to me. There was a knowing look in her eyes, as if she had been waiting for me to do this all semester. "Now honey-"

"I know," I grumbled. "Detention,"

Not answering me she instead said, "Come with me."

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."

I stared at him stunned. I couldn't believe Grover was covering for me Mrs. Dodds scared him the bajeezes out of him.

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin started to tremble.

"It's ok, man," I told him. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine it's not your fault Nancy fell into the fountain."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds called to me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

I gave her my deluxe I'm-gunna-murder-your-ass-later look making her take a step back, ha. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

Wow that was one fast old lady.

I went after Mrs. Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He looked pale and terrified staring at me with worry in his eyes. He kept glancing back and forth between me and Mr. Brunner like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

Okay, she's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.

But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery was empty… creepy.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the gods. A frieze she was currently looking at like she wanted to destroy it.

"I'm sorry to say this Miss. Potter but you've been giving us problems." She said.

I did the safe thing and said, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged at the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you could get away with it?"

She looked at me with pity but fierce determination, like she was going to fix a problem.

This can't be good.

"I'll-I'll try harder ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

"We are not fools Azalea Potter," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. And while I don't hate you and I think you may have just been an unknowing pawn in all of this we still need it back. Confess now while you still can."

I have no idea what the frick she is talking about.

All I could think is that the teachers must have found my illegal business of selling kids hard to get goods, nothing bad I'm only ten for fucks sake just stuff like candy and games, I make quite a profit. Or maybe they figured out that I was the person who dyed all the school uniforms orange to show school spirit.

"Well," she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't…"

"Your time is up, and maybe this is better, we'll find out the truth once you die and you'll be safer dead than alive honestly."

Then the weirdest thing began to happen. Her eyes began to glow like barbecued coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouthful of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

Then things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Azalea!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ears. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a scythe, longer than me it was about six feet tall with a long curved blade coming out of each end the black with streaks of bronze through it gleamed wickedly in the light. How in the hell am I suppose to use this?

Mrs. Dodds spun towards me with a surprised look in her eyes when she saw the scythe.

My body shook from nerves. The same feeling you get right before you do something very important, filled me making my stomach twist with nervousness while I shuffled my feet unable to keep still.

"It's time to die, honey!" she said.

And she flew straight at me with her claws aimed and ready.

My body quivered with nerves and excitement as I watched her come closer, for a second fear twisted in my mind but I crushed the feeling before it completely took hold. She got closer and closer until she was feet away and I did the only thing I could, I swung the scythe.

The long curved blade surrounded her body for a second before it sliced clean through her it, taking her torso off the bottom part of her body in one clean slice like she was made of water. Hissss!

Mrs. Dodds was like a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into golden powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur behind and a dying screech.

I was alone.

With a giant scythe in my hands.

Mr. Brunner wasn't there neither was Mrs. Dodds. Nobody was there but me.

Holy hell someone must of spiked my drink or hidden magic mushrooms in my lunch because if not, then what in the hell just happened?

The scythe in my hands shook and I got the impression of a dog waging its tail after it thought it had pleased its master. Far be it from me to question that, if a ball point pen can transform itself into a huge scythe then I guess why can't it have a mind of its own to.

"Uh, good boy." I said with that over exited voice you used with pets as I patted the curved blade on the top end carefully. It shook harder like it was happy about my acknowledgement of its help and almost seemed to purr under my hand as it grew warmer. Ya that isn't creepy at all.

"I need you to grow smaller boy can you do that for me?"

With a one last happy purr, it began to shrink in my hands until a pen was all that was left, Mr. Brunner's pen to be exact.

I went back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting all by his lonesome looking miserable and near to tears his eyes red and puffy, with a museum map perched on his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your but."

"Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

"Oh ya forgot her name." which she accepted since I'm horrible with names and she knows it, well at least she thinks she does I used to call her Norm Buba all the time just because I could and she did push Grover on the floor and stole his text book. You mess with Grover then you mess with me and considering the fact I've been taking self defense and classes martial arts classes, well I can protect both of us or at least try. I started to take those classes because it made me feel safer and I never wanted to be as helpless as I was with the Dursley's.

I headed over to Grover who didn't notice me until I was a couple of feet away.

"Liz!" he said in relief as he jumped up from his sitting position and hugged me. He pulled back and held me at arm's length looking me over to see if I was hurt anywhere.

"Geez Grover you act like you thought you'd never see me again. And why are you looking me over for, wounds?"

"I-I umm was j-just so w-worried when y-y-you g-got lost is a-all, and-and I thought y-you might have g-gotten h-hurt." He stuttered nervously not looking me in the eyes as he glanced around quickly at everything else.

His voice slowly grew stronger and calmer as he continued speaking, "Besides you're like my best friend and little sister and I'd feel horrible if anything happened to you."

I only laughed at him teasing him for being such a worry wart, but I knew he was lying he could never meet my eyes or not stutter when he lied to me. And when I asked him about Mrs. Dodds he stared down at the sleeve of his shirt and began to pick at it as he answered after a long pause about he had no idea what I was talking about. If that's not a lie then I don't know what is.

I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he never moved.

I went over to him.

He looked up a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Miss. Potter.

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. Right before Mr. Brunner grabbed it though I could feel the pen grow colder almost as if it was sad and upset. A whimper seem to echoed in my head like a sad dog being separated from its owner, and I could only give it a reassuring squeeze as I thought about how much I didn't want Mr. Brunner to take it. This seemed to calm it down almost as if it had understood me since it stopped being so freezing cold and calmed down right before Mr. Brunner grabbed it.

"Sir, where's Mrs. Dodds?" I questioned.

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

I stared at him silently for a second. He was lying, don't ask me how I knew this I'm not sure, but looking into his eyes I could almost feel as if a voice in my mind whispered that what he said was a lie.

I wasn't one to trust blindly and this was one of those times where I wouldn't let my opinion get in the way of my actions.

He was l lying.

To me.

And I would act like he was telling the truth for now but I'm onto you now mister and I'll be much more careful around you.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: Okay, thank you purple sky always, Padfootette, percyjacksonfan135, KaggyAlucardSesh, and Raven Marcus for reviewing, and thanks to everyone else for reading the story.

KaggyAlucardSesh: I mostly made the weapon a scythe instead of a sword because I like scythes better, but it does have a reason actually. Harry Potter, or Azalea Potter in this case, turns into the Master of Death in the seventh book, and this plays a part in the story. Just like prophecies, because they affect her fate, ehh 'hint hint' nudge, nudge, 'wink', Fate. And I haven't actually thought much on the whole abuse issue, but at this point I think I'm going to make it so her dad, Poseidon, knows that the Dursley's weren't kind to her but he doesn't know the extent of the abuse.

Purple sky always: Thanks for reminding me, I completely forgot about that 16 year old age limit, and I might, I'm not sure yet, because I don't like adding a lot of oc to stories. Insteead I might mess with Thalia's fate, the one that she had in the book with Artemis Archers, or maybe even Nico's sister, Bianca.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

I was used to the occasionally weird experience, but usually they where over quickly. This twenty four/seven hallucination was pushing it, but then again I did teleport across a whole ocean so I couldn't really complain. And yes it is something I practice I've gotten rather good at it and I don't even make that popping noise anymore. The best thing though is that it doesn't even feel like being squeezed through a small tube anymore, it's more like a cramp tunnel now but it is rather tiring and I almost pass out if I start trying to bring living things with me, something I discovered when I tried to travel with a stray dog I found. I had also gotten good at moving stuff around mentally with IT nothing heavier than a book though, and plants and animals seemed to like me. Plants seemed to grow faster and stronger when I was around like I was feeding them something and they always moved to face me and seemed almost happy when I touched them. Animals seemed to trust me better than most people like they could sense my intentions better.

I figured I could do all this because of IT. The thing the Dursley's seemed to hate so much.

I listen carefully around the school for any mentions of Mrs. Dodds but no one said a thing, it was like she never existed.

And apparently she didn't.

One night when everyone was dreaming of fairies with sugar plums racing through their heads, I, in my not-being-able-to-sleep-boredom snuck out of my room and headed over to the computer lab.

I decided to look through the schools files to look for her and that involved hacking into it of course which was completely legal and who ever told you otherwise was a dirty rotten liar.

The only reason I could hack a computer was because I'd gotten punished for something in one of my past schools that had involved setting loose stray cats through the school. Which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't washed everybody's uniforms in water mixed with catnip and then hid tuna and more cat nip all around the school. Ya that gave cat scratch fever a whole new meaning. After all was said and done I was locked in my dorm room with nothing to do. But what should I find when 'cleaning' and 'straitening' my roommates stuff but a book in her suitcase titled 'Hacking For Dummies'. I spent the rest of my time reading that book which I did exactly 26 times.

I checked the school records only to feel a chill run down my back.

Nothing…

There was nothing anywhere, according to this Mrs. Dodds had never taught at Yancy Academy.

The rest of the student seemed to believe that Mrs. Kerr- a perky blonde women whom I'd never seen before in my existence here on earth until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip- had been our algebra teacher since Christmas. I call bullcrap.

By this point in time though I almost started to believe them, that was if I hadn't remembered Grover's and Mr. Brunner reactions or at least in Mr. Brunner case, my feeling about him lying.

Something was going on. Something had happened, but I didn't travel around in a van called the Mystery Machine solving crap and as long as it didn't start to really affect me I wouldn't meddle. I hate drama and going around bugging people for answers would cause lots of unnecessary drama and problems.

I also already saw enough of Mr. Brunner outside of classes now, and didn't need to see more of him by trying to get answers out of him. That pen of his appeared everywhere now. No matter what, every couple of days or so it would appear in one of my pockets always giving of that exited impression of a dog wagging its tail excitedly when its master gets home. I could never bring myself to get angry about it so I calmed it down; at least I think that what I did, by patting it and sending comforting thoughts at it while I talked in a calm, happy voice to it.

'Sigh' I'm talking to pen now that's just great, a shining example of sanity. But I always felt a little sad when I gave it back to Mr. Brunner who would give it a fond look like it was a disobedient pet. And the pen would always give the impression of a whimper in my mind and turn cold in my hand making it harder to give back each time.

The freak weather continued, which was odd but I loved watching storms so it wasn't that bad. Though, one night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm which was bad. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.

I started to feel cranky but if there was one thing I had learned in my short life it was to control myself and my emotions and not to let them control my actions. That always ended badly.

Though I did take my frustration out in other ways and after three more teachers had to see the counselor due to the fact they were sure a ghost was rearranging stuff in their classes. Hey, if they didn't always turn a blind eye to Nancy's bullying just because her parents where rich and she was only picking on the kids who where poorer than her, then I wouldn't have had to do it.

When they couldn't figure out the culprit they just blamed me the jerks, I mean yes it was me but they had no proof.

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy due to my behavior even if my grades where some of the best in the school.

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

I wanted to be with my Aunt in our little apartment on Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious Uncle and his stupid poker parties. He was nowhere near as bad as Uncle Vernon.

And yet… I would miss something's in Yancy. The view of the woods out of my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, and the smell of pine trees. But mostly I'd miss my best friend Grover, who'd practically be my brother if it wasn't for blood, and I loved all his enchilada loving strangeness. I worried about how he'd survive next year without me and what I'd do without my best friend to calm me down and try to talk me out of some of my wilder ideas.

I'd miss Latin class, too- Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his constant faith in me being able to be a good obedient student. Ah that poor naïve fool but I could never bring myself to burst his bubble that I would never act any different.

As exam weeks got closer I studied somewhat, but it wasn't that hard I could remember most things as long as it wasn't dates or names I was good. One class I really studied for was Latin since I thought it was a cool class and I learned everything that related to Greeks as much as I could. Also Mr. Brunner saying this subject being life-and-death for me made me want to study it a bit more.

The evening before my final, I couldn't sleep from my nerves, I was too worried about what would happen to Grover when I wasn't around to protect him and what I would do next year without my best friend or where I would even go to school.

I paced the room, feeling like a caged animal that was trapped.

I needed to get out of here and go for a walk maybe out in the woods that would calm me down… I hope.

I walked out my room and headed for the exit so I could sneak out something I had done tons of times in the middle of the night, I loved walking through the woods at nighttime. To do this I had to pass through the faculty offices hallway. Most of the rooms where dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps past the door when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked some question and a voice that was definitely Grover's said "…worried about Liz, sir."

I froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper, well I won't admit to being one at least, but in this case I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.

I inched closer sticking to the shadows.

"…alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing her." Mr. Brunner said. "We need the girl to mature more."

"Sir, you know as well as I do for all the ways Liz acts immature and messes around she is the most mature out of all the students and knows when to act it, the rest of the time she's just messing around to have fun. And she may not have the time. The summer solstice deadline-"

"Will have to be resolved without her, Grover. Let her enjoy her ignorance while she can."

"Sir, she saw her…"

"Her imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince her of that."

"Sir, I…I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotions. "I don't know what I would do if the same thing happened to her as it did last time I-I can't-"

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Azalea alive until next fall-"

Further up the hall a door slammed shut followed by the thump of something falling over.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

My heart was hammering, I backed back down the hallway keeping close to the wall and watching the door.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that look suspiciously like an archer's bow.

I opened the nearest door that was luckily unlocked, and slipped inside.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood block, and then the sound of an animal snuffling as it passed my door. A large dark shape passed outside of it moving further down the hallway.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck as a slowed my breathing and sat completely still.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn…"

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. ""You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

I waited there in the dark for what seemed like forever.

Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back to the dorm. Heading into my room I slipped into bed and stared up at the dark ceiling thoughtfully.

So Mrs. Dodds was a Kindly One and the Mist was affecting everyone's memory of her except for me, Grover, and Mr. Brunner. The latter two seemed to know the reason why that is too. The only thing I could think that had mentioned the name before of Kindly One would be from what I had read of Greek mythology about the Furies. And remembering what Mrs. Dodds looked like with her hag body and bat wings I couldn't have found a better match.

But that was crazy though right? A Fury showing up at my school and attacking me while the Mist affected everyone else's memory of it ever happening that could never happen in the real world. But I myself had broken many laws in the real world with my abilities and if I could do that then why couldn't a piece of Greek mythology come to life to.

Besides all religions had to come from somewhere and maybe some of Greeks religion was based on facts. I did always hold the idea of skeptic disbelief and would say you where right as long as you showed me proof. And that proof had tried to kill me, and you didn't get any realer then that.

So apparently Greek mythology existed in real life, but if it was more than just monster, and include gods and other things, was still to be seen. I would be careful, Mr. Brunner and Grover seemed to know more about it then me and they thought I was in some kind of danger that had something to do with the winter solstice.

And I was now wary of this Mist they talked about, it could affect the memories of everyone at school and that was nothing to sniff at. It sounded almost like a security system used to keep normal people from knowing about anything caused by Greek mythology or at least affect their views of it.

With these thoughts racing through my head I slowly fell asleep while I stared up at the dark ceiling.

The next afternoon I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes were tired from reading so much Greek and Latin though it had been somewhat easy due to all my studying in the subject, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.

For a moment I was worried he found out about my eavesdropping on him and Grover the night before, but that didn't seemed to be a problem.

"Azalea," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's…it's for the best."

His tone was kind but I still couldn't help but to be annoyed and embarrassed. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic kissing motions with her lips. I only gave her a glare that promised her clothes and hair wouldn't be the same color tomorrow.

"Okay, sir." I mumbled

"I mean…," Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."

Ouch.

Here was my favorite teacher, telling me in front of the class that me being refused back was obviously going to happen, that I was destined to get kicked out. I mean with my behavior half the time yeah I knew it would probably happen but still he didn't have to say it in that way.

"Right," I said looking away from him.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say is… you're not normal, Azalea. That's nothing to be-"

"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot sir, for reminding me.

"Azalea-"

But I was already gone.

His words echoed in my head, not normal… like a freak. I know he didn't mean it that way but still I couldn't stop the word from entering my head.

On the last day of term I packed my stuff away into my suitcase.

The other girls were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One was going on a fashion trip in Paris. Another was vacationing in her beach house in the Bahamas. They where juvenile delinquents, like mio, but they were rich juvenile delinquents.

They asked me what I was doing for the summer and I just told them I was heading back to the city.

I at least didn't need to get a job of some kind this summer, since I had made a pretty penny off of these rich kids with my illegal buying and selling system I had set up, the things a kid will pay for candy or the newest game are ridicules. I had around $800 when all was done and I could continue my magician street act when I got home that at least earned me around $90 or so bucks a week from the tips. The most I had to worry about was what school I would go to in the fall.

Yes I was a swindler it helped that my powers made it easier to levitate stuff or teleport it to other places, and also that I was so young and cute in my outfit. That had a cape, a CAPE, I love capes they where awesome. I usually gave some of the money to Aunt Sally or in this case since she wouldn't take it I hid it sneakily inside her other money and slowly gave it to her throughout the week.

"Oh,' one of the girls said as she tossed her hair behind her shoulder. "That's cool."

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never even existed. Well most of them, Nancy continued to glare at me with her wonderful puke green hair and hot pink clothes. Hey I told her with my glare what I was going to do to her she should've listened.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

Right before we left the school I felt a weight in my pocket and a happy purr echo through my mind as the pocket in my hoodie grew warmer. Maybe it was because the way Mr. Brunner had spoken to me last time or how he and Grover were keeping secrets from me that affect the safety of my life. But this time out of some feelings of revenge and anger at my teacher, I didn't head over to give him the pen back. Besides I always felt safer and right when I had it, and almost as if it understood my thoughts of wanting to keep it this time its purring increases as a flash of happiness filled my mind.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he always acted more nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound, and my new knowledge about Greek mythology being real told otherwise.

"Hey… Liz…," Grover began nervously.

I turned to look at him, from his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Well, I was thinking you should take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was annoying to read, on it was written.

_Grover Underwood_

_Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long Island New York_

_(800)009-0009_

"What's Half-"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped in panic. "That's my, um… summer address."

"Oh, okay so if I need to ever visit your mansion I should call." I teased him.

He nodded blushing slightly in embarrassment, "Or… or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

It came out suspicious and more wary then I'd meant it to.

Grover blushed right down to his adam's apple. "Look Liz, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."

I stared at him.

All year long I'd been the one defending and protecting him from bullies and punishing them later, to keep them away. In ways to might I add, that the teachers couldn't prove that I was behind it. I'd lost sleep worrying about him getting beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one defending me.

"Grover, I don't think protecting me from the horrors of an enchilada, by eating it yourself, counts."

Before he could answer there was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus smelled like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and pulled the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few moments of clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed out with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On one side, across four lanes of asphalt that shimmered with the afternoon heat, was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On our side was an old-fashion fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, and no one from the bus seemed to notice the stand, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pairs of socks I'd ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one while the lady on the left knitted the other. The third one in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me, which was really creepy, like scary movie creepy.

I looked over at Grover who seemed to be distracted by all the liter to be found, a mournful angry look was on his face as he muttered under his breath.

I carefully slipped away and headed over to the old lady, no one noticed me as I snuck away.

Standing across from them at their little stand I said the only thing that came to my mind, "Um, hello Madams" pure genius if I do say so myself.

"Look here sisters if it isn't her." the on the left rasped out.

"This wasn't supposed to happen she wasn't supposed to speak to us or even be on this side of the road." the one on the right muttered.

"We can't control fate and you know that sister, this was all chance. In one world she would have been male in another she would have been stranded on the other side of the world. We can never know which will happen." the middle one reminded her.

Three ladies who call themselves sister and seem ancient and old, while they knitted a pair of socks and talked about fate and the futures of someone's life, counting the discovery of Greek History being true. Well then, I'd be an idiot to not know these are the Fates, you know three sisters who weave the loom and all that junk, and well even if they're not it's best to play it safe.

"So, I don't mean to be rude and if I am please forgive me, I am inexperienced with this whole thing since I just figured out about Greek mythology being real a couple of weeks ago. But well, are you three the Fates?"

"Hmm, the girl is much quicker and smarter than she is in other worlds." The right one said.

"That's good she'll need it, since she has doubled the responsibility in this world." the middle one rasped.

"The savoir of two worlds, she'll have her work cut out for her but such is the fate you chose for her Lachesis, but I suppose that is your job." The left one said.

"Yes, but you could have stopped me by making her life shorter, but instead you gave her life a different length didn't you, Clotho? And besides I gave her some help in life and many different paths to follow, she deserves it for us doing this to her and giving her such a challenging future, right Atropos?" Lachesis, the one in the middle, said.

"Bahh, you two act like she's going to have such a horrible life. There are worse that I have ended and besides unlike the other two males that took her destiny in different lives, she handles it much better, much less death. Just shows you never send a man to do a women's job, well in this case a girls, she takes on the destiny that was meant for two chosen ones and comes out far better than either could." Atropos, formally known as the one on the right, said as she reached for a huge pair of scissors-gold and black, long-bladed, like shears.

I stared at the shears warily, glancing back and forth between the scissors and the thread of yarn that came from the basket.

"Don't worry dear this isn't yours nor anybody you know." Clotho soothed, also known as the one on the left.

"We wouldn't be so cruel to you dear, we have high hopes in you and you do show a good amount of respect. Besides at this point you might as well consider yourself our champion." Lachesis crooned.

"Your champion?" I questioned carefully, no reason to make them mad. Especially since they're someone even the gods are not willing to trifle with them. It was creepy and scary to even think about the fact they might even control the gods fate.

"Our champion!" Artopos sputtered in shock.

"Yes, yes why not? We've already done more to her than we do to most, and while you don't have to be our champion you can just consider us your Grandmas." Lachesis finished looking at me.

"I suppose so," Clotho murmured thoughtfully, "I did always want a granddaughter, but never could have one for obvious reasons."

"See! Even Clotho agrees with me Artopos, and I know that you want one too no matter how you act." Lachesis cried in glee.

"Fine have it your way old twit, Azalea can be our granddaughter are you both happy now." Artopos growled out.

"Of course I am you bitter old hag." Lachesis said teasing Artopos who only glared back.

"Ignore them deary, they always act like this, bickering nonstop gives an old lady like me such a headache, dealing with these two." Clotho said.

"Look who's talking you old bat you can never keep anything strait, you know she lost the shears once. The very things needed to end life and continue to keep a balance on earth and she lost them!" Artopos cried. "And where were they, hmm? In your bag the whole time! I swear you'd lose your teeth in the morning if you hadn't super glued them in there on accident that one time, you crazy old bag."

"I-I umm ok? Granny Artopos, Gran Clotho, and Grandma Lachesis," well what else was I suppose to say?

All three stopped and fighting, Clotho and Lachesis began to coo about how cute their new granddaughter is, while Artopos nodded acceptingly with a small smile on her face.

"Here honey," Lachesis said, "have some cherries you look a little hungry, and so skinny too you must eat more."

I had a rather large bag of cherries shoved into my hands as Lachesis muttered 'much to skinny' under her breath.

At this point I heard a yelp come from behind me, a very Grover like yelp. He must have noticed me missing finally and also who I was with.

"Best to get back with your friend, girl before he has a heart attack, jumpy one isn't he," Artopos snapped out "and you better be careful to, youngins today are much to reckless for my taste, why back in my days…"

"What back in the land before time? You're older than the dinosaurs you prehistoric fossil." Lachesis tainted.

"Bye," I said weakly a little overwhelmed by how they acted as I walked quickly back to a panicking Grover.

The moment I got back over to him he bent down, so I'm a ten year old sue me, and with my four feet tall high and his five four height I was the height loser here, and checked me over as if to see if anything was wrong. I stared at his face as he slowly began to calm down, "Grover," I said carefully, "are you alright?"

He only let out a nervous laugh as he pulled me into a tight hug like he was afraid of me disappearing.

"It's ok, Grover." I said soothingly as I patted him on the back. Pulling back I saw him calm down completely… only for the blood to drain from his face a second later while his nose twitched as he stared at something over my head.

"Tell me they aren't looking at you. They are, aren't they?

"Yeah, creepy huh?" I'm pretty sure at this point they where only staring so they could freak Grover out more. "So you think those socks would fit me, they look rather lovely."

"Not funny Liz. Not funny at all."

Artopos held up the pair of scissors she'd been holding bring them up to the string. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Come on!" he pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.

Artopos finally cut the string and strangely enough I could hear the snip from here. Clotho and Lachesis balled up the rest of the electric-blue yarn, when a thought crossed my head, who were the socks for- Sasquatch or Godzilla? Damn I should've asked them.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuttered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Sitting beside Grover holding my bag of cherries, I couldn't help but to worry, he sat there shivering as his teeth chattered.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

He let out a short laugh that almost sounded like a bleat as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But Liz, can you tell me something?"

"What?"

"You know those old ladies back at the fruit stand, well what did you see them do?"

"Well the one on the right took her scissors and cut the yarn." I knew this would make him worry more since he seemed to know who they were, but what else could I say?

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It seemed much older.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. "I… it can't happen like last time, not to you, I-I you're my best friend my sister it can't happen again not to you." He rambled as he chewed on his thumb

"Grover?"

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"GROVER," I yelled snapping him out of it and making him jerk to look at me. "Calm down, everything is going to be alright, and even if it isn't, worrying about it is not going to change anything so just relax."

"I… okay, just let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

"Okay, I promise."

This seemed to calm him down. So I turned to watch out the window as I started to eat my cherries. Which Grover refused to eat, he looked terrified to touch them.

As I ate them I pulled out the pen who purred happily in my head at the attention and began to twist it through my fingers. Grover noticed after a while and yelped, "Is that Mr. Brunner's pen!?"

Glancing at him and raised my eyebrow as I said, "Yes?"

"I-I… why do you have it?" Grove stuttered nervously.

"Found it in my pocket."

"Oh, well I'm meeting up with Mr. Brunner later for a-a meeting at the school later this week," he said looking everywhere but me, liar anybody. "And I could return the pen for you."

"Okay… here the," I held out the pen for him to take. It grew cold in my hand a whimper entered my mind.

Grover's hand closed around it taking it from my grip, the moment he did an angry snarl ripped through my mind. Grover let out a yelp of pain as the pen seemed to glow with heat for a second, as he threw it away from him. Without even thinking about it my hand moved to catch it, and the moment my fingers closed around it, a warm happily purr replaced the snarl.

Grover glanced fearfully at it holding his hand close to his chest protectively. "Grover…" I stated but he interrupted me saying he was fine and must have pricked himself on the pen, but he didn't ask for the pen back. Apparently the pen wouldn't stand for us being separated again.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors Note: Okay so here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it and I wouldn't look too far into Azalea's situation when it comes to her godly parent and her birth, it won't really affect the story and it was just my way of explaining her being a demigod. Please remember that since Azalea has different experiences in her life that she'll act different then Percy so the results of some of her adventures and situation will be different then in the story, the same goes for Harry.

Thanks to Katiebug, Padfootette, Cynthia, Fire Dolphin, percyjacksonfan135, and god of all for reviewing the last chapter, and thanks to everyone else also who has read and reviewed so far. : )

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Okay so confession time. I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the terminal.

I know, I know. You're so cruel and mean, and that is so rude. But Grover was starting to freak me out, looking at me like I was about to die, muttering. "No, no, no why her she's my best friend and sister, why her." and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade, she's not even that old yet only ten not twelve."

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, and then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I booked it and got in the first taxi I could heading uptown.

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First." I told the driver.

So let me tell you about my Aunt before we get there.

Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much for her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

And then I pop into her life, literally.

She took me in, a four year old girl who had just teleported into her living room. The only real connection she had with me was that she knew my mother way back when they where children, from a brief trip to England she had, and had communicated with my mother using letters until my mom stopped writing back three years ago. Most people would have freaked out finding a little four year old girl who could do odd stuff, like the Dursley's, but she took everything in about me and loved me anyway. She never judged me, even when she found out the odd little girl she took in, no matter how unusually smart she is, was going to get kicked out of nearly every school she went to. She'd just smile kindly and say she loves me no matter what happens.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I still knew no matter what she said, I wasn't an easy kid.

Finally she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, and then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I first met him I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm not sorry, well he isn't even as close to being as bad as Vernon, but it's true he does smell. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped around in gym shorts. He never hit me though and the worse he got was when he bugged me for money or started to yell at me which I could easily handle. He never did it around Aunt Sally though the one time he tried she turned into the definition of angry momma bear, and hey for a woman that is always kind and smiling, she can be downright terrifying.

Between the two of us, we made my Aunt's life kind of stressful, even if I snuck and hid money in her stuff to help. The way Smelly Gabe treats her, and the way I got kicked out of every school I've gone too was difficult for her.

I always thought it was weird how she married him so suddenly. When I asked her why she was doing it she just smiled down at me, the one that makes me feel completely safe, and told me it was because she loved me more than anything else in the world.

I remember a brief memory of a man who had appeared shortly after I found myself with Aunt Sally for a little bit. He was super tall and had jet black hair, with sea green eyes, and a fisherman's tan. When he saw me for a brief moment he just gave me the happiest smile ever like he was overjoyed to see me, and oddly enough the look he gave me was loving and proud, which was weird since I'd never met him before in my life. He talked about something to Aunt Sally then left afterwards she looked more understanding when I did odd stuff. When I started to go to school, and weird stuff started to happen there, it was not soon after that she married Smelly Gabe.

I walked into our little apartment, hoping Aunt Sally was home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all across the carpet.

Hardly looking up he said around his cigar, "So you're home."

"Where's my Aunt?"

"Working," he grunted, "you got any cash?"

Well it's lovely to see you too Uncle Gabe, how have you been for the past couple of months... oh, me? Yes I've had a lovely time at school just wonderful thank you for asking. At least that was the conversation we would have had if he wasn't such a jackass. And also some of you may be wondering how a ten year old has such a lovely vocabulary well; I'll have you know every single swear word I know I've learned from Uncle Gabe during one of his drunken rants.

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head that where all combed over his scalp, as if that made him appear to have of long flowing hair and there for handsome.

He managed the Electronic's Mega-Mart in Queens, and I have no idea how he wasn't fired since he never went to work, but he kept collecting checks. Checks might I add that he used to buy cigars and beer or to fund his gambling funds. If he ran out he expected me to give him money he called it our 'Uncle and Niece secret'.

"Don't have any moola Uncle Gabe." I singsong back to him.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a fat greasy bloodhound, which was surprising, since his smell should have covered up everything else.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty, got six, seven bucks in change. And you always have money, either from that street performing or that buying and selling business you have at school that one of the teachers complained about."

Amazing right? He has the art of finding money perfected.

"You've got to carry your weight if you expect to live here. "Right Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he grumbled "the kids only ten and she just got here."

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled down into a bowel of pretzels. The other two passed gas in harmony.

"Yeah, yeah, fine." I said. I dug out my wallet and threw seven bucks on the table. "Have fun with your riveting game."

Gabe only grumbled behind me, as the other two belched in harmony again, huh they should start a band.

Getting to my room I pulled open the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study", which meant he tried to get it as dirty as he could or, even more likely, he was naturally just a horrible slob. Old car magazines where shoved everywhere, some barely balancing on stacks of pizza and takeout boxes. My closet overflowed with trash spilling out and muddy foot prints covered the windowsill and wall around it. What made it worse was the smell, he made it his mission to make the whole place smell like his nasty cologne, cigars, and stale beer.

I dropped my suitcase on the bed, ahh, home sweet home.

I felt bad for leaving Grover but he had been acting so oddly and I couldn't stand how he was looking at me like he expected me to drop dead. But he had been so worried about something, something that may be coming up the steps right now growing claws and fangs; I knew about how monster seemed to seek out and attack demigods in the stories.

Worry overcame me for a second, before my hoodie pocket warmed almost as if to remind me I wasn't completely defenseless. Relived I held the pen in my pocket as it purred comfortingly to me in my mind.

Then I heard my Aunt's voice. "Liz?"

She opened the bedroom door and I felt a wave of excitement and happiness pass through me.

My Aunt could make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkled and changed colors in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt in winter. She's got a few grey streaks through her long chocolate brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I'd never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me and Gabe, besides that one time she got mad at him.

"Oh, sweetie." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!" It was nice of her to pretend but I haven't grown at all, I'm still my short four feet tall height, for a ten year old, whose long curly, ebony black hair, and sea green eyes took up most of the attention. Most adults would say I was a cute ball of energy that was until they've been around me longer than a couple of minutes; I then got upgraded to demon spawn from hell.

Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all that other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of free samples like she always did when she came home.

We sat there on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry licorice, she ran her hands through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't explained in my letters. She told me off for all my pranks on people but I could still see her smile and suppressed laughs especially when I explained why I pranked them. She didn't seem to care about me being expelled. But was I okay? Was her little girl doing alright?

I told her how much I had missed her and that I loved her, she was the greatest Aunt in the world, like my mom really.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally-how about some bean dip, huh?"

I scowled at the door.

My Aunt was the nicest person in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not some jerk like Gabe.

"Honey, I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

My eyes widen in excitement, "Montauk!?"

"Three nights-same cabin."

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

I couldn't believe it, I hadn't been there since last summer we almost hadn't been able to go there last year or the year before that because according to Gabe we didn't have the money. So I saved up my own money and managed to get enough for the trip and four nights both years, one of the few times Aunt Sally willingly accepted my money. I loved being near the ocean and when I had forced the money in her hands begging to go there, she had smiled knowingly saying, "You belong near the sea."

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

I glared at him wanting to make the door slam shut in his face, but the moment the door began to slightly shake Aunt Sally turned and looked me in the eyes. And I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.

"I was on my way, dear," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe sighed rolling his eyes. "That trip again? Fine whatever, but you're paying for it." He grumbled.

"I am dear." My Aunt said.

"And you'll be careful with my car? Bring it here and back, nowhere else?"

"Just like every other year, we'll be very careful with your car. And you don't even have to have bean dip, I made seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

This seemed to soften up Gabe completely as he nodded his head letting out a slight affirmative grunt as he scratched his double chin and waddled back into the living room to continue his game.

"Thank you, for staying calm Liz," my Aunt said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more on whatever was worrying you when I walked into the room, okay?"

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride-as if my Aunt knew the truth about Greek mythology too. But then her smiled returned and I calmed myself, but I kept the thought in mind as we headed for the kitchen.

An hour later we left.

Gabe followed us downstairs to complain about my Aunt leaving and how there'd be no one to cook. He was also very vocal about losing his car, a 78' Camaro, for the whole weekend.

Watching him lumber back towards the apartment, I got annoyed so I did the same gesture Grover did. As Gabe reached the door, I made the hand gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving motion at Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it wacked him in the butt sending him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. I had no idea if it was the gesture or my odd powers but I didn't care, I just got in the car and waited for my Aunt to start driving.

We reached our rental cabin, which was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a small pastel hut with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

I loved it.

It was sunset when we reached it and my Aunt looked younger and more carefree here, relaxing when she had nothing to worry about. And me, I was an over exited blur of black curly hair and shining sea-green eyes that bounced everywhere nonstop.

We opened up all the windows to air it out and cleaned up the cabin. We later walked on the beech feeding blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue dolphin shaped gummies, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my Aunt had brought home from work.

So the thing about the blue food…

See, Gabe had once told my Aunt there was no such thing as blue food, ever heard of a blueberry Gabe? Oh, right that's healthy and it be a shame to eat anything that grows from a plant. But they had this fight, which seems like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes, mixed blueberry smoothies, bought blue-corn tortilla chips, and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself, ugh, Mrs. Ugliano- was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe.

When it got dark, we made a fire from the drift wood around the beech, that burned a greenish blue instead of red and orange from the sea salt in the wood and roasted marshmallows. My Aunt told me stories about when she was a kid, back when her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the book she wanted to write someday, when she got enough money to quiet the candy shop.

Gathering up my courage I looked up from the fire to my Aunt, "Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her, "to another boarding school?"

She pulled her marshmallow out of the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think… I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as I said them.

My Aunts eyes welled up with tears. She took my hand, squeezing it tight. "Oh, Liz, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

She reminded me of Mr. Brunner telling me it was best I left Yancy Academy, was my Aunt like Grover and Mr. Brunner, did she know?

She wanted me to be safe, but something odd always happened to me no matter what school I went to.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me around the playground. When the teachers had threaten to call the police, he went away growling, but no one would have believed me if I had told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, he only had one eye.

Before that- a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher had accidently put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My Aunt screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a living snake that, according to her, I seemed to be trying to talk to with hisses and, who attacked anyone that got too close to me as if protecting me. No one was sure why the snake never attacked me, but attacked everyone else.

Her voice interrupted my thoughts.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my Aunt said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one option, Liz-the place your fath…he wanted to send you. And I just… I just can't stand to do it."

"My…my father?" I said finishing her sentence.

"Well in a way yes your father, he wanted me to send you to a summer camp and sending you there would mean I-I might not see you again."

"For good? But it's only a summer camp."

My Aunt was acting like Mr. Brunner and Grover, who both knew about Greek mythology being real. And my mom had met my father or talked to him somehow, and he should be dead so she must in a way know the truth to.

"I… is this about Greek mythology Aunt Sally?" I said softly.

Her head jerked up to look at me from where she had been staring at the fire, her eyes wide with surprise and shock. "Liz…you know?" she whispered.

"Not…not really," I sighed. "I know that the Fur- I mean Kindly Ones exist and the Fates. Mr. Brunner and Grover seemed to know to."

"That's not good, Liz." She said grabbing my hands. "Tomorrow where going to head back to New York City and fix this, okay." She said in that voice where you knew you couldn't talk her out of it.

"Okay, but what was that about my father he's dead isn't he?"

"Oh, Liz I'll tell you lat-…" my Aunt began.

"No…no please Aunt Sally tell me now I have to know." I interrupted her.

"I… alright, you deserve to know, it's not something that should be kept from you. A couple of weeks after I first met you, your father came to visit, to tell me what he is and what you are. He said that he wasn't really your father more like both your mother and father really. Your other parents Lilly and James Potter wanted a child badly but they had figured out Lilly was barren, meaning she couldn't have children sweetie. So they prayed for help and he said they did something else, a ritual, and he heard their call. He had wanted a child for some time now and when he heard them begging for one too he couldn't help himself, so he took half the DNA from your mother and father added his own and created you putting you inside your mother. He told me that your mother and father where magical beings, a witch and a wizard, and he only took the magical DNA from them since it was stronger, and safer to combine with his own. Your technical second father is Poseidon Greek god of the oceans."

Wow that was a lot to take in. I was in a state of shock frozen as my mind tried to wrap around the idea. Well at least my parents didn't cheat on each other was the only thing I could focus on. My parents where magical, I think I'm going to ignore that for now but it does explain some of my abilities and I'm guessing that was what IT was when Vernon tried to beat IT out of me. I was a demigod I guess? It did explain Mrs. Dodds and the Fates somewhat, also all the weird stuff that happened to me like the one-eyed man.

I need to sleep.

"Are you ok sweetie?" Aunt Sally asked as she wrapped her arms around me giving me a comforting hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine Aunt Sally just need to sleep a bit you know?" it was a lot for my ten year old brain to grasp maybe blowing something up would help me think better.

I had a vivid dream that night.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

I ran towards them trying to stop them, but I was running in slow motion and knew I'd be too late. The eagle dived down, its beak aimed at the horses wide eye's and I screamed, No!

I woke with a start.  
Outside, it was storming; the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. The lightning light up the night sky making it look like day time briefly and twenty foot waves pounded the dunes.

With the next thunderclap my Aunt woke up. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

I knew that was crazy. Long Island didn't get hurricanes this early in the summer. But somebody seemed to forget to tell the ocean that. Over the roar of the ocean I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end and for the pen in my Invader Zim pajama pants pocket heat up.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on the cabin door.

My Aunt sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the door.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't… exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"

My Aunt had a look of terror on her face as she looked back at me. "Quick, get in the car. Hurry!" she said. After that she reached for her purse and rain jacket, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"

I grabbed my shoulder bag that held all my stuff for the weekend and ran out the door, Grover right beside me.

Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly I knew the reason for his muscular disorder. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were hooves.

We drove through the storm, how my Aunt could see anything past all the rain was beyond me. She kept her foot pressed to the petal the whole time never slowing down.

Ever time there was a flash of lightning I would see Grover sitting beside me. The smell of wet barn yard animal filled the car.

"Umm… do you and my mom know each other?" I questioned him.

Grover glanced back and forth between us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you"

"Watching me?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your best friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"So," I said "you're a satyr… how's that going for you?"

He spluttered choking on the words he was going to say, "But how…how do you…"

"Please Grover you have goat legs for crying out loud." I said as he started to blush.

"Yeah, I guess, but still you got it so fast do you know…?"

"Grover you're a horrible lair and you saying Mrs. Dodds didn't exist wasn't the least bit convincing. I figured out that Greek mythology was real back when you where talking to Mr. Brunner the day before the exams."

Grover shook his head, "Should have known, you always where really smart when it comes to figuring out things." He muttered.

"And even if I hadn't figured it out by then," I continued, "the three Fates showing up and talking to me should have tipped me off on the truth."

Grover only let out a sigh hanging his head, "I should just lock you up in a room, by this point it seems like it's the only thing that will keep you out of trouble."

"So why lie about Mrs. Dodds?" I asked.

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like it should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."

The weird bellowing noise rose up gain somewhere behind us, closer than before. I felt the pen in my pocket shake slightly and grow hotter like it was exited for a fight. Whatever was chasing us was still on our tail and getting closer.

"Liz," my Aunt said, "we have to get you to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's chasing us?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said. "Just the Lord of the Undead and a few of his blood-thirsty minions."

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

Great, this was just great.

My Aunt made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses, wooden hills, and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My Aunt said her voice tight; she was trying for my sake not to sound scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

Not saying anything I turned to watch out the window looking for any signs on where we were.

Driving down the road I was surprised when my Aunt pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved around to avoid-a dark fluttering figure now lost behind us.

"What was that?"

"We're almost there." My Aunt said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please, please, please."

I leaned forward looking for the camp we were heading to.

As I sat there watching the rain through the window I felt something stir in me. It was familiar, the same feeling I get when I teleport or move objects around. It was my magic, and it was agitated for some reason. The same for the pen in my pocket, it was sending me worried panic feelings like it felt something coming.

I felt, without my prompting, my magic move to protect me and by extension Grover and Aunt Sally. It wrapped itself around the car, creating a protective cocoon just in time. The last warning I got of what was going to happen were the hairs on the back of my neck rising. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling BOOM! And are car was lifted up and thrown.

I remember feeling weightless as we flew through the air, Grover and Aunt Sally where screaming but I couldn't make a noise. My magic was wrapped around the car protecting us from the lightning that had just struck us, and it was painful and tiring at the same time like using a new muscle for the first time and working it past exhaustion.

We hit the road with a thud rolling along until we came to a jerking stop right side up. My head thumped painfully to my heartbeat, from hitting against the headrest, as I stumbled out of the car. Grover and Aunt Sally followed me gasping at what they saw.

The car was completely spotless, not a single scratch was on it from our little tumble.

"B-but how…?" Grover said.

Anymore questions where interrupted by a bellow from down the road. I saw I figure lumbering towards us on the shoulder of the road. He was huge bigger than a football player, and he seemed to be holding a blanket above his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy, while his raised hands made it look like he had horns.

"Liz!" Aunt Sally said panic in her voice. "You have to run, Liz. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?" I said.

A flash of lightning showed what she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-size pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my Aunt said. "Get over the hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Aunt Sally you're coming too."

Her face was pale, her eyes sad.

"No!" I shouted. "You're coming with me, or I'm not leaving. I could never live with myself if I left you here." I squared my shoulders stubbornly as the pen in my pocket grew warm in anticipation for a fight.

"He doesn't want us," my Aunt told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But…"

"We don't have time, Liz. Go, please."

Fine then, if he was only after me then I would do something else.

Grover and Aunt Sally let out surprised yells as I raced past them going in the opposite direction of the tree, straight at the lumbering man.

"Liz! Get back here right now young lady!" Aunt Sally shouted at me.

"No! Liz!" Grover yelled.

I gathered what magic I had left and teleported closer to him leaving Grover and Aunt Sally far behind.

I got my first good look at him, he was easily seven feet tall, his arms and legs looking like they came straight from a body building contest, with tons of bulging muscles layered over other bulging muscles under vein webbed skin. Like he had started to weight lift and no one told him to stop, since he sure as hell won. He wore no clothes except underwear-I mean, bright Fruit of the Looms undies- which would've looked funny, except the top half of his body was so scary. Course brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was thicker than my whole body, bulging with muscles and covered in fur, leading up to an enormous head. It had a snout half my body length, which shined with snotty nostrils and a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes and horns-enormous black-and-white horns with points you couldn't get from an electric pencil sharpener.

I recognized him he was the Minotaur, Pasiphae's son.

He let out an angry bellow when he saw me get closer so quickly, tossing his head, he lowered himself and charged.

I remembered what the story said, he can't turn fast, so you're suppose to wait until the very last second and then jump out of the way. Yeah that wasn't as easy as you'd think when you have to see the seven foot tall bull guy come charging at you, head lowered, and razor sharp horns ready to impale.

Pulling my pen out I waited until he was feet away, then something happened.

The world seemed to slow as everything moved in slow motion. Behind me I could hear Grover and Aunt Sally screaming and the steady pounding of my heart beat in my ears. The Minotaur looked like he was moving through thick sludge his muscles seemed to slowly move under his skin. Uncapping the pen I felt its excitement for battle as it grew into a long wicked scythe, that had long curved blades on each end, the black metal with bronze streaks through it shined with an inner light.

I moved to the side holding my scythe out with both arms and bracing it, as I aimed it at the unprotected belly of the Minotaur. With a wet thump it imbedded itself into his stomach making it let out of roar of pain, as it fell to its knees. Time returned to normal and without missing a beat I jerked the scythe sideways, and it slid through his stomach like it was cutting through butter. He fell down from the pain, only holding himself up by his hands, his head lowered as he panted.

Pulling it completely out I raised it high in the air and swung down with all my strength, the curved blade hit something that stopped it for a second, then the muscles and skin of his neck gave way as the scythe blade sliced straight through.

The head was already turning into golden dust before it hit the ground, the body following soon after. All that was left was what looked like a pelt that turned into a black hoodie with dark brown swirls going up it.

I was tired and everything hurt so badly from being tossed around in the car. My vision blurred as all the noise around me sounded muffled, like it was coming through a thick cloth. Grover and Aunt Sally voices grew closer to me as I fell and laid there on the hard pavement with rain hitting me.

"Liz, oh my gods, Liz!" Aunt Sally cried as she moved closer with Grover following.

"Hey, Auntie," I said weakly with a smile on my face. "Lovely weather we're having isn't it?"

She only rolled her eyes at me and pulled me into a tight hug. Grover let out a relived sigh falling down beside me.

"Idiot, you had me worried," he grumbled reaching over and whacking my head slightly.

"Aww, did I scare the little billy goat?" I teased; he only bleated at me and took another swipe at me.

"Not that I don't love the company or anything but I'm feeling a bit tired." So with those words I passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: This chapter is early, and I don't know how this happened but it's also very long. I don't really plan anything out before I start writing, so that's why most of my chapter lengths vary. I uploaded this early just because percyjacksonfan135 is right and I should get to the camp. I plan for this chapter and the next one to be all the camp time, so by chapter six the quest will start. I wanted to finish the camp part this week, which is also why I'm uploading today and Friday since I can't upload any chapters during the weekend. Thanks to Nymphadora Jackson, Natsuko Nishi, KaggyAlucardSesh, Lourdes08, percyjacksonfan135, and purple sky always for reviewing the last chapter, and thanks to everyone else who has read and reviewed so far.

Percyjacksonfan135- I uploaded this so early because of you too, since you pretty much asked, so here you go, camp parts! : )

There is also a question at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

I had a dream full of barn yard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me, the rest wanted food.

I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no fricken sense, so I just passed out again, there problem solved. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. This girl with curly blonde hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon, well fuck you to then.

When she saw I was awake, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

I managed to croak, "What?"

She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"That's a wonderful question," I rasped out, my throat dry. "Now ask someone who has an answer."

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.

The next time I woke up, the girl was gone, thank the gods, troublesome women.

A husky blonde dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes-at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, forehead, the back of his hands, everywhere the eye could see.

"Hello," I mumbled sleepily staring at him.

His lips moved up into a smile as he nodded his head at me.

"Argus, right?" I asked.

He nodded his head again his smile growing wider.

"Huh, you have some pretty blue eyes you know that?"

He blushed slightly but his shoulders shook as a chuckle came from his closed lips.

I smiled at him, "Well not to be rude but I'm still sleepy so please excuse me while I pass out."

I woke up the third time to a hand being pressed against my forehead. Opening my eyes tiredly I saw a guy in front of me, he had short sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, a thick white scar ran from beneath his right eye to his jaw.

"Hey, look who decided to wake up." He said smiling at me.

I hissed at him like cat before growling out, "No thank you, I shun the waking world, sleeping is for me."

With those words said I pulled the blanket up to my chin and passed out again to the sound of someone laughing.

When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my sounding, unless you count waking up on a porch outside weird, which yes I did consider that weird. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, and a pillow under my head. And my mouth had that same feeling you get after a really long sleep, dry and nasty, my teeth even hurt.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a purple straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.

I very carefully griped the glass in both hands bringing it slowly up to my lips.

"Careful," a familiar voice said.

Grover was leaning against the porch rail looking like he hadn't slept in days, though now he seemed completely relaxed and relieved. Under one arm, he held a familiar black hoodie that had dark brown swirls going up it. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD, just plain Grover.

"What happen to my goat friend? You where much cooler when you had a furry behind, come on everyone likes dat furry goat ba-donka-donk." I wiggled my eye brows at him.

He rolled his eyes at me as he lightly hit the back of my head, "Stop trying to spread your insanity, we don't need any more people running around with you brand of stupid."

"So Grover if you're a satyr, then where are your horns."

"There there," he defended with a blush, "They just haven't grown in yet."

"Ahh, don't worry Grover, it's not the size of the horns but how you use them." I said winking at him.

His face turned bright cherry red as he frowned at me. "Here, Liz." He dropped the hoodie he was holding on to my lap.

"The Minotaur."

Grover stopped blushing, "Thanks Liz," he said softly, "for saving my life back there, when you killed him."

"What and let you escape me? No where best friends forever Grover and you're stuck with me for life, through pain and torture."

Grover laughed nervously, "Don't you mean through the good and the bad times? Ha…ha…right Liz?"

I smiled widely at him chirping happily, "Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night, that's when you're the most defenseless and when I come out to play."

Grover paled taking a step away from me, "Ha…ha… it's nice to see the Minotaur didn't change your personality, Liz." But then he smiled, leaned over and gave me a hug, "I'd miss your constant craziness if anything happened to you."

I laughed and stared out into the meadow. There were groves of trees, winding streams, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top.

"Grover, my Aunt?"

"She's fine, went back to New York using the car you saved from being totaled. She said when summer's over she'd come pick you up, and that it was best for you to stay here so you could learn to protect yourself better. And I'm supposed to tell you how much she loves you, she even gave me this note to give you."

He held out a slightly crumpled piece of paper, which I immediately grabbed, holding the glass of iced apple juice in one hand.

Dear Liz,

Honey, I wish you could stay with me for the whole summer but it would be better if you stayed at camp. Not only is it something your father wished you to do, but you'd also be learning how to protect yourself better. I love you more than anything and I'll come to pick you up at the end of the summer, you be a good girl and learn lots.

Love Aunt Sally

I smiled happily, bringing the drink up to my lips and taking a drink.

What the hell, that ain't no apple juice.

Instead of apple juice, the taste of chocolate chip cookies filled my mouth, chocolate chip cookies in liquid form. Not any cookie though, my Aunt's homemade blue cookies with chocolate chip, buttery and hot with the chips still melting.

Oh…my…sweet…zombie…Jesus.

This was the drink of gods.

Before I knew it I had drained the glass, the ice cubes sitting at the bottom.

"Was it good?"

"Oh, sorry Grover I should have let you try some."

"No, it's fine," he rushed to say, "I can't even drink it, it being nectar and all. I'm just a satyr, got no god blood in me. Be careful though it or ambrosia might heal you, but too much will kill you."

He carefully took the glass from my hands like it was a bomb and set it gently on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.

As I walked with Grover I pulled on the hoodie zipping it up halfway, it was big on me and came half way down my thighs, the sleeves hung over my hand making me push them halfway up my arms. Grover teased me on how, with the hoodie on, I looked even more smaller and younger then usual.

When we came around the opposite end, I caught my breath.

We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, the landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture- an open-air pavilion, an amphitheatre, a circular arena- except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange t-shirts, like Grover's, where chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods, some even shot targets at an archery range. Yup, your average summer camp.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table the blond-haired girl who'd fed me pudding, troublesome women, was leaning on the porch rail next to them.

The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like a drunk, trailer trash version of a cherub angel. And the tiger-pattern Hawaii shirt, he was wearing wasn't helping his image in any way.

"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director, be polite, the girl there is Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron…"

He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.

The man was sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a tweed jacket, with thinning brown hair. Chiron, the great trainer of hero's, was Mr. Brunner my Latin teacher, huh who'd ah thunk it.

"Mr. Brunner or should I call you Chiron now?"

The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled out a pop quiz and made all the multiple answers B. Which was incredibly nerve racking might I add.

"Ah good, Liz," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."

He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."

"Uh, thanks," I said . Mr. D was a man who was very familiar with the devils nectar, otherwise known as booze; he looked like he's been hitting the happy juice recently.

"Annabeth?" Chiron called to the blonde girl.

She came forward and Chiron introduced us. "This young lady helped nurse you back to health, Liz. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Liz's bunk? We'll be putting her in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth nodded, saying "Sure, Chiron."

She was older than me by a year or two, and was about a foot taller around five something. She had an athletic look, with her deep tan and curly blonde hair, she was the poster girl for California. Well she would be, if it wasn't for her eyes, which where a stormy grey.

She glanced at the Minotaur hoodie I was wearing, than up at me. I thought maybe she would say something like, Wow you killed a Minotaur, or maybe 'I'm grateful to be near you your awesomeness.' Something like that.

Instead she said, "You drool in your sleep."

Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blonde hair flying behind her.

And I was right behind her chasing that hoe down, or I would have been if Grover hadn't grabbed my arms tightly to hold me back.

"Her death shall be a slow one, when I rule the world." I vowed watching through narrow eyes as she ran further away.

"Liz, what have we talked about when it comes to world domination?" Grover scolded me.

"That it's bad, but I would be a kickass world ruler, and if anyone disagreed then they can leave."

"And go where Liz? You'd be the ruler of the world."

"I heard the sun's a nice vacation spot."

"Liz…" Grover warned.

"So," Mr. Brunner interrupted us. "I must say, Liz, I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I wasted my time."

"So, that's why you where at Yancy Academy?"

"Yes, we have satyrs at most schools, keeping a look out for people like you. Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to… ah take a leave of absence."

"Aww, you came to Yancy for little old me?"

Chiron nodded. "We contacted your Aunt to see if she knew, then when we figured out she did, we told her we were keeping an eye on you."

"Grover," Mr. D snapped impatiently, "are you playing or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Grover squeaked trembling as he took a seat. Grover was more terrified of the small drunken oompa loompa than he was of Mrs. Dodds, which said something about him. Mr. D, huhh lets see Greek myths he seemed to be drunk was short, small. I had some ideas of who he was but I'm not sure yet.

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.

"No, sir, but then you have one more person you don't have to worry about winning right?"

"Hmm, suppose your right, but it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young ladies to know the rules."

"I will strive to learn them then sir," I said with a wide grin staring at him.

He only rolled his eyes and looked away as he dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.

"Liz," Chiron said interrupting the silence. "Did your Aunt tell you anything?"

"Yeah, after I told her how I figured out the day before the exams at Yancy Academy that Greek myths where real or at least some of them, she told me about my father, or in this case my second father."

"Oh," Chiron said blinking dumbly, not sure what to say to that.

"Your second father?" he finally questioned after a few minutes.

"Yup, but I'm not sure I should tell you who my second dad is since I have a feeling it be better to let him do that."

"It's probably best," Chiron admitted with a slow nod.

"Wonderful," Mr. D interrupted with dry voice. "Now young lady, are you bidding or not?"

"And how does bidding work, sir?"

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and I did, without really having a clue if what I did was a good move or not.

"Hmm, I guess we don't really need our usual orientation film."

"Ooh, orientation film?" I asked excitedly.

"No," Grover and Chiron said at the same time. Chiron continued ignoring Grover, "Well, Liz. You know Grover's a satyr, you've killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either for a ten year old girl. What you may also know is that there are great powers in your life. For Greek gods are still very much ali-."

Chiron's dramatic speech was interrupted by Mr. D yelling. "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Anyway as I was say-," but Chiron was interrupted again, by Grover this time. "Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Eh? Oh, all right."

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it loudly; the sound of crunching filled the air.

"But anyway," Chiron gritted out, "The Greek go-," CRUNCH, Chiron flinched. "gods are ver-," a mad cackle over powered his voice as Mr. D stared at his cards with a crazed smile. "VERY much al-," a rather loud CRUNCH happened then followed with an especially loud cackle from Mr. D.

"ALIVE!" Chiron shouted just as Grover finished his can and Mr. D stopped laughing.

"Jeez, Chiron," Mr. D drawled. "There's no need to shout."

Chiron's eye twitched as he took deep calming breaths.

Mr. D played a card, "Can't believe I'm confined to this miserable job, working with snot nosed brats." He grumbled.

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

My eyes widen, and Chiron hardly looked up.

"Mr. D," he warned. "your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled. "Old habits! Sorry!"

Thunder rumbled in the sky.

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of his soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."

"Ahh, temptation a horrible thing." I said sagely nodding my head.

"Yes," Mr. D said. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, was probation. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill, summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence', he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha! Absolutely unfair."

Mr. D sounded like a pouting six year old.

So let's see, he's not mortal, loves wine. His dad seems to be Zeus if the thunder was anything to go by. So he must be Dionysus, the god of Wine.

"So, you're dads Zeus," cue thunder, "and that makes you Dionysus then? The Greek god of Wine?"

"Yippe," he dead paned not looking up from his cards. "You've cracked the case, don't expect a cookie. Or in other words, how do you kids say it these days, no duh."

"I believe I win." Mr. D said suddenly.

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said. "The game goes to me."

Mr. D scowled and glared at Chiron like he'd like nothing better than to vaporize him in his wheelchair, but then he gave a tired sigh like he was used to being beaten by Chiron.

"Uhh, did I lose to?" I asked showing my cards. Chiron eyes widened as Mr. D cackled. "Looks like you lost to, ehh Chiron?" Mr. D said gleefully, obviously happy about Chiron losing. Chiron only grumbled seeming slightly disappointed by it.

Mr. D stood up, with Grover following.

"I'm tired and I believe I'll need to take a nap before I can deal with the rest of the brats. Before that though, Grover, we need to talk about your performance on this assignment."

"Y-yes, sir," Grover said.

Mr. D walked away throwing a, "Cabin Eleven, Azalea Potter," over his shoulder.

"Will Grover be okay?"

Chiron nodded at my question. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been… ah grounded, I guess you could say, and he can't stand waiting another centenary before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Mount Olympus," I said. "So, that means it's somehow somewhere in America, since it moves with the heart of Western civilization, or that's what I read. How Mount Olympus is always the heart of the Western civilization, right?"

"Yes, located in New York, right above the Empire State building." He said.

"Wait, wait… right above the Empire State building, like floating in the air right above it?" I asked.

"Yes," Chiron said like that was a completely normal thing.

Which it wasn't.

It wasn't normal, at ALL. Mount Olympus floating over New York City was something that was a little out of the ordinary for me, so please excuse me when I act a little surprised.

Chiron started to rise from his wheelchair, which if you lived in a normal world, besides some exceptions, is not something that normally happens. The way he did it was odd though. His blanket fell away from his legs, but his legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt.

And what should come out ladies and gents but the body of a horse. Which happens all the time, and is of course perfectly normal. The horse part of Chiron's body was covered in coarse white fur, which was over muscle and sinew. With long knobby-knees that had huge polished hoofs.

The wheelchair that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside sat beside Chiron, empty with a pair of legs attached.

"What a relief," the centaur said as nonchalantly as can be. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Azalea Potter. Let's meet the other campers.

And the only thing I can think is, 'Disney really fucked up when it came to Hercules, cause that ain't no goat body'. 

Once I got over the fact Disney lied to me as a child, and that my Latin teacher was half-horses, we went on a nice tour. Though I didn't walk behind Chiron, no offense to him, it's just that I've been to parades before and I know what comes out of a horse behind when it walks.

As we walked through the camp many campers stopped what they were doing to point and stare. And I didn't think it was because Chiron was half-horse. What proved me right though was when one of the campers pointed at my hoodie and said, "That's HER."

Nice to know when you're being talked about right?

From what I could see nearly every, if not all, of the campers where older than me and their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, every one of them wore that orange Half-Blood t-shirt.

Let me tell you one thing about me. I HATE being stared at. Maybe it was my paranoid nature coming through and telling me if they stare I was more noticeable and less able to hide. Or it could be that it was fricken annoying and rude. Either way I didn't like being the center of attention. It was nerve racking for me and I always did something stupid when people were watching me.

And everyone stared at me like they expected me to start dancing the tango or something.

I looked back at the farmhouse, which was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. It was four stories high, sky blue with white trim; it reminded me of an upscale sea resort. At the very top of the house was one of those weather vanes but instead of a rooster it was a brass eagle. While I stared at it some movement caught my eye, there, up in the attic window, something had moved. I didn't say anything since it was a house and people live in it right?

-

As we walked through the strawberry field, where campers were picking strawberries and satyr played music on reed pipes. Chiron told me how they used the crop to help fund the camp by selling it to local restaurants and Mount Olympus. It also helped that fruit bearing plants went crazy around Mr. D, so they grew strawberries since he was forbidden to grow grapes.

The satyr's music made little lines of bugs file away from the fruit and I wondered if Grover could do that. And if he can do that then I'd have to ask him to de-bug my house.

"Grover's not in trouble, right? I mean… he was a good protector, really."

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horse back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Liz, perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage as a keeper, finding a camper and bringing him or her safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!"

"I must agree with you," Chiron said "But it's not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York, and there's also the fact you faced the Minotaur all by yourself. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."

I felt guilty; if I hadn't ditched Grover then he wouldn't be in trouble right now. And if I hadn't went and left Grover far behind when I fought the Minotaur then he'd be in even less trouble, but I didn't regret it, Grover could have gotten hurt when I was fighting the Minotaur. So I wouldn't regret it.

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"

Chiron winced, "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, Liz. The Council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still small for his age…"

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

"What! And he's still in sixth-grade?"

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Liz. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"Wow, and I thought human parents had it bad with their kids."

Chiron laughed, "Quite."

"At any rate," Chiron continued, "Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career…"

"No." I said.

"Liz, he…" Chiron started.

"No," I interrupted, "Grover will accomplish his goal and get his dream job. He won't stop trying till that happens so don't say things like that. I have faith in his abilities."

"You're very loyal to your friend." Chiron said.

"Grover's my best friend and my brother from another mother, of course I have faith in him he's always stood by me, so I'll always stand by him. We've got each other's backs."

Chiron just smiled at me saying, "Come, Liz. Let's see the woods."

As we got closer, I realized how huge the woods where. They took up at least a quarter of the valley, with the trees being tall and thick, they looked untouched by modern civilization.

I loved it.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see, capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"

"My own-?"

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I thi-"

"Wait!" I interrupted him. "I do have a sword… umm, well a weapon any way. It's that pen; you remember it started to follow me around. I eh, never got the chance to give it back to you the last day."

As I said this I pulled the pen out of my pocket and held it up so he could see it. A happy purr that had become background noise in my head, since the pen had been doing since I woke up, grew louder.

Chiron reached over and took the pen from my hand.

Immediately an angry snarl filled my head, as pure anger filled me, though I could tell it wasn't my own. Chiron let out a cry of pain as the pen glowed with heat, making him drop it. It disappeared as it dell through the air, and then reappeared in my hand, the purr starting up again as a feeling of smugness came from it.

Chiron stared warily at the pen as he held his hand close.

"I'm so sorry Chiron; it did the same thing to Grover. I should have remembered and not let you touch it. Please don't be mad, it's just that it gets upset if where separated and you've taken it away from me so many times. It must have a grudge against you, I should have known better." I said in panic.

"Hmm, I should have known when it started to follow you around during the end of the school year," Chiron said. "Anaklusmos did seem rather fond of you."

"Riptide," I muttered translating Chiron's words as I stared down at the pen. There was a flash of pure happiness from it when I said its name, making me smile fondly. The pen seemed to melt in my hand, flowing up my hand and wrapping around my wrist. The liquid formed into a bracelet on my wrist that was made of pure black metal that seemed to suck the light in from the air around it, in ancient Greek letters across the thin black bracelet was the word Anaklusmos.

I smiled, running my fingers across the words, as a soft purr echoed in my mind.

I looked up to see Chiron watching me with a thoughtful look on his face. When he noticed me looking the look disappeared as a smile came across his face, "I suppose you're stuck with it now. Since if anyone tries to take it from you they get burned."

I laughed nervously, "Sorry, about that."

"Don't fret, it didn't hurt that bad, just surprised me. Now back with the tour."

We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights, perfectly reasonable.

"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal, usually, oh, yes and there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There was a dozen stone picnic tables, no roof, no walls.

Finally he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five on either side. And they were some very, umm… unique buildings.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door they looked nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory, with heat waves visible around it. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass, corn, pumpkins, and other harvest plants grew around it. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the daylight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a common area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and basketball hoops.

In the very center of it was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending to the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

When we moved closer she looked up at as. I smiled at her waving, which she looked surprised at. Slowly she smiled back and then waved at me; she then turned back to the fire resuming her poking duties.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and –her mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so the lightning bolts in the front looked like they were consistently moving. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns covered in garlanded with pomegranates and flowers, the walls had images of carved peacocks.

Zeus and Hera's cabin's I was guessing and they were empty. I could get why Hera's cabin was empty, her swearing to never cheat on her husband, but I didn't get why Zeus's was empty, he was the leader in demigod production in the myths, a how would you say, complete man-whore. Or at least the leader in the award for worst husband of the year when it came to faithfulness.

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low, solid. The outer walls were rough grey stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls where covered in every shade and type of coral and underwater plant, that all waved gently with some unfelt wind. They all glowed softly like someone had injected the same liquid from a glow stick into them. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But everything was untouched; with no sign anyone slept or lived there. Chiron pulled me back saying, "Come, along Liz."

Most the cabins were crowded with campers. Number five was bright red, which wasn't that bad since it was blood red and beside blood red and neon red every other shade of that color was ugly to me. The only real problem with the paint though, was the fact it looked like someone had splashed it on with buckets and fist. But to each their own, and it was a unique paint job, so kudos to them. The roof was lined with barbed wire which, I won't lie, was kind of bad ass. A stuffed wild boar's head hung from the doorway, an angry snarl stuck on its face. All together it looked, to me at least, cool, I appreciate many things in life and I could appreciate this cabin. It was unique and badass looking, like the Terminator or a bad ass mofo would live there.`

Inside I could see a bunch of kids that looked like they ate nails and glass for breakfast, with NO milk, now that's tough. Both girls and boys were arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe fourteen or fifteen. She wore a size XXXL Camp Half-Blood t-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She was bigger and tougher looking than Nancy Bobofit, with long stringy brown hair. She looked over at me and started to sneer, she would have continued if I hadn't done what I'd done. I couldn't help myself when she looked over I smiled widely at her and waved like crazy making her freeze in surprise. I then pumped my fist in the air and did an air guitar solo while I jumped around my black curly hair flying around me. I finished with a moon walk, something I had practiced for weeks in my room, and spun in a circle to face her.

Her and her whole cabin where staring at me surprised and shocked looks on their faces, the girls face from before was the most shocked with her eyes wide in disbelief and her jaw hanging.

They just couldn't handle my awesomeness, so I gave them a peace sign with a wink and turned to face Chiron.

Who saw everything.

And was just staring at me with an eyebrow raised, not saying anything.

"Haters gunna hate," I said snapping my fingers in a circle as I waved my head back and forth, before I burst out laughing.

Chiron shook his head letting out an exasperated sigh, "Lets continue."

I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves, those things could take out an eye, and a foot, with the whole leg, possible the torso too but I digress.

"So… no offence Chiron, but if you're the trainer of hero's then why are you still alive or are you immortal?"

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him, "I honestly can't say I'm immortal or that I should be dead. The truth is, I can't be dead, but I'm still not immortal. You see, eons ago the gods granted me a wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needs me. I gained much from that wish… and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

"Wow, you've been a teacher for the past three thousand years… you sure you're not in hell and you haven't just realized it yet. Because that sounds like eternal torture to me."

Chiron laughed, "Ahh, but you're here right?"

"I'm just a figment of your imagination, Chiron." I said waving my hand at him.

Chiron shook his head, "My imagination?" he questioned.

"Might I say your imagination came up with a very good figment, bravo good sir, bravo."

Chiron smiled fondly down at me while ruffling my hair, much to my displeasure, looking up his smile widened. "Oh look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

The troublesome girl from before was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.

When we reached her, she looked over me critically, like she was thinking about how much a drooled.

I looked at the book she was reading, which wasn't in English, it was in Greek with pictures of temples, statues, and different kinds of columns on it, like an architecture book.

"Annabeth," Chiron said. "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Liz from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing at the door. "Make yourself at home."

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with emphasis on old, though I'd call it well loved. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint was peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it, or otherwise known as in ancient Greek, a caduceus.

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where red cross had set up an evacuation centre, or like one big slumber party.

Chiron didn't go in, on account of the door being too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Liz. I'll see you at dinner."

He then galloped of into the distance never to be seen or heard from again… well okay he went towards the archery range, but it wasn't nearly as dramatic.

I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids, they stared back at me not bowing anymore, and we looked at each other, me and the cabin full of kids stared at each other. The awkwardness brings tears of happiness to my eyes. I slowly smiled at them, my grin getting wider and wider and I winked at them, then my face went blank and I stood as still as I could.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

But I didn't move one inch, keeping my face blank as the people in the cabin glanced at each other in confusion. Annabeth let out an annoyed sigh. "Gods, I have no time for this," she marched around to stand beside me staring me in the face.

"Go on," she said, "get moving." She made shooing motions with her hands.

When I didn't move she leaned closer bringing her finger up to poke me in the chest so she could tell me what's what.

"BOOO!" I shouted lunching forward towards her.

Annabeth let out a shriek, and jumped backwards. A couple of answering shrieks and yells rang out from behind her as well. I reached forward with a wide grin on my face when Annabeth started to fall backwards, grabbing her hand and helping her regain balance.

Annabeth jerked her wrist from me with a scowl on her face. I winked at her saying, "That scowl looks especially lovely on your face, dear Anna."

"Anna?" she said her eye twitching.

"Of course I'm going to call you Anna from now on."

She just frowned at me.

I walked through the doorway of the cabin, the kids inside smiling and laughing at what had happened. So when I tripped coming in the door, they laughed louder. "Hey," I said giving them all a stern look. "That was just a random gravity check, you should all be thanking me for checking, heavens knows if you float of when it stops working it's your own fault." I finished crossing my head and nodding at them with my eyes close.

There laughter grew louder, does no one appreciate the importance of gravity maintenance here?

Annabeth announced, "Azalea Potter, meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

"Undetermined," Annabeth said.

Everyone groaned.

I feel so unloved.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Azalea. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."

"Wait!" I shouted, waving my hands around as I jumped up in down making my hair fly around me. "Before this continues, please call me Liz or Lizzy or any other name within reason, if you are creative enough to come up with. I prefer it over Azalea, now surfer dude please continue." The campers all went about their business some smiling to themselves others chuckling.

This was the same guy who'd been there when I'd woken up once, he was about nineteen with a friendly smile on his face. He was tall and muscular, with as you know short-cropped sandy hair. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and saw she was blushing, me thinks someone has a crush. She saw me looking and her blush only increased when I nudged her side and wiggled my eyebrows at her. "He's your counselor for now."

"For now?" I asked.

"You're undetermined," Luke explained. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

"Well, I do know who my second dad is but Chiron and I agreed that it was best if he claimed me himself, though Chiron doesn't know who he is." I explained.

"Oh," Luke said curiosity in his voice, "who is it?"

"Ahh, but if I told that would ruin the fun."

Luke nodded his head saying, "I suppose so,"

I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. It was lucky that I was so small or that would be a tight squeeze. But I wouldn't put anything down, call it a hunch, but Hermes was also the god of thieves.

The campers around me where all looking at me with different expressions, most unworried since I was a ten year old girl who looked small enough to pass for an eight year old. Something Grover takes great pleasure in telling me, and that also tends to make people let their guards down around you, naïve fools. Some grinned stupidly while others eyed me like easy pick pocketing prey, which others around them caught making them hit them for trying to steal from what they thought was an eight year old. The most annoying thing though, where the mothering and adoring looks on some of the female population, they were always the most terrifying to deal with.

"Well," Luke said. "You look like you need a break Annabeth, so I'll take Lizzzy off your hands."

"I-I guess so." Annabeth said a small blush on her face, girls got it bad.

"Be good for Luke, Liz." Annabeth ordered with steal in her voice and the promise of pain beyond imagination if I did otherwise.

"Wouldn't dream of acting any other way." I chirped at her.

She didn't seem to believe me.

Luke reached down and grabbed my hand like I was a child, I know I am but damn it it's the principle behind it, I have honor! He then said "Come along Liz." And then led me away.

Luke and I were walking down a path through camp, he was still holding my hand leading me along like I would get lost easily. "I'm not a little kid you know." I pouted to him.

He laughed ruffling my hair with his other hand. "Whatever you say, shrimp."

"Shrimp?" I said back, narrowing my eyes at him.

He smiled and stated to respond but a husky voice yelling, "Well! If it isn't the newbie." interrupting him.

I looked over, to see the big girl, from the unique red cabin, was sauntering towards us. She had three girls behind her that all must have been her relatives due to their similarities, all where big and wore camo jackets, with the family sneer on their faces.

"Clarisse," Luke sighed in annoyance. "What do you want?"

"Well if it isn't golden boy, don't interfere, this doesn't concern you." Clarisse said.

Luke took a step forward looking annoyed and angry at her. "And there is no reason for you to pick on a eight year old so-"

"Excuse me!?" I said, interrupting him. "I have lived on this earth for ten whole years now, not eight."

Luke rolled his eyes and covered my mouth with his hand. "Calm down shrimp, don't unleash your riotous fury on me. You're just so small I thought you were eight."

I licked his hand making him jerk it back uncovering my mouth. His nose scrunched up as he wiped it on his pants.

I stuck my tongue out at him before I mumbled quietly, "You can blame my loving Uncle and Aunt for that."

Not quite enough apparently, since Luke frowned at me, something flashing in his eyes.

"So," Clarisse said, "who's the little runt?"

"Azalea Potter," Luke said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

"Ohh," I squealed, jumping up and down while my hand was still held by Luke making his arm lift up and down with me. "Your dad's the God of War that's so cool!"

Hey I was excited, Hades and Ares where some of my favorite Greek gods, well there were others but they were two of my favorites.

Clarisse blinked, obviously not use to this response. "Well," she said slowly gathering her thoughts, "don't think just because you said that is going to change my mind."

"Hmm?" I hummed looking up at her with my head tilted.

"Well, nothing personal, but it's camp tradition… an initiation ceremony of sorts, everyone goes through it, all the newbie's, so you will to." Clarisse slowly explained.

Luke moved me behind him, scowling at Clarisse. "She's just a ten year old and if you think I'm going to let yo-"

I tugged at his pant leg, making him stop his rant and turn his head to look at me, "Yeah, Shrimp?"

I scowled at him, pulling my hand from his so I could cross my arms across my chest, "It's fine, if everyone goes through I will to." I finished my statement by stomping my foot and lifting my chin stubbornly.

And he… smiled, while letting out a soft chuckle… smiled and chuckled.

Damn it, don't smile and laugh when I'm angry and making a point, I'm terrifying when I'm angry, fear me foolish human, fear me!

Why must he smile and laugh?

Clarissa moved forward and grabbed my upper arm pulling me along as she went towards a cinder-block building that I knew was the bathroom.

"Come on squirt, initiation time." She said.

"Hey!" Luke yelled angrily moving forward, only to be stopped by the three other girls.

She pulled me into the girls' bathroom, there was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled like any public bathroom, which I thought was bullshit since this place belonged to gods, they should've had much nicer joint.

Behind me I could angry fighting from Luke and the three girls.

I started to pull on Clarissa's arm; I knew what was going to happen. I hadn't been to four different schools, most of which that were for delinquents, without learning about a swirly.

"Nothing personal," Clarissa said. "But you've got to learn how to be tough to survive, and this should help."

I highly doubted that.

Clarissa bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head towards the toilet bowl, while I struggled in her grip. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, everything else that goes into a toilet, you get the idea. I strained to keep my head up as I stared at the scummy water in the toilet bowl; there was no way in Hades my head was going in there.

Behind me I heard the door slam open as Luke ran in, the three girls following him, tying to stop him.

Then something happened. I felt a tug on the pit of my stomach, then I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shuddering. Clarissa's grip on my head loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarissa screaming behind me.

I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarissa straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her but, and across the floor into a shower stall.

As her three friends moved forward to help her, everything went to Hades. The other toilets exploded as did the shower fixtures, the combined water creating a wall of water that washed them all right out of the bathroom, spinning them out the door in the flood.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Only Luke and I had been spared, there was a circle of dry floor around us both. Neither of us had a drop of water on us or our clothes.

I felt shaky and kind of tired, sitting there in front of the toilet on my knees. Luke was frozen in shock staring at the open door that Clarissa and her friends had been washed out of.

When he turned and saw me sitting there shaking in exhaustion he moved forward towards me, pulling me up to my feet and wrapping me in a hug. He then held me at arm's length looking me over, "You okay, Shrimp?"

I nodded my head giving him a small smile.

He smiled back, and ruffled my hair. Grabbing my hand he led me back out the door. Clarissa and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarissa's hair was flattened across her face, and her camouflage jacket was sopping with water that smelled like sewage.

Before any of them could get up or even open their eyes Luke had dragged me away.

Word traveled fast and soon everyone pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water as we passed. Well they did at first, but Luke gave anyone withering glares the moment they did so soon people stopped.

He showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords, Riptide sent me a smug feeling about the fact he was my weapon, and in his opinion far superior to their attempts of sword crafting), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropping boulders, spraying lava, and clashing together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. Guess what I'm going to avoid doing this summer, I'll give you a hint it has to do with the possibility of being crushed, burned, or falling to death. Don't strain yourself trying to figure it out.

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got something to do," Luke told me. "I'll find you soon, dinner's at seven-thirty, the whole cabin will head up to the mess hall, so don't worry about missing it, be good Shrimp."

With a soft smile and a hair ruffle, much to my displeasure, he walked off, heading to where ever.

I went over to the lakes edge and sat there staring into the water, relaxing. It took me a couple of seconds to realize I was being stared back at.

There were two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shimmering green t-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved at me like I was a long-lost friend.

I smiled shyly waving back, I think they were naiads.

They both giggled behind their hands.

I sat there for a while, the cool breeze that carried the smell of the ocean playing around me as the sound of the waves gently lapping at the shore filled the air. It was relaxing and peaceful, so naturally it didn't last.

I jumped in surprise when water splashed my face. Looking at the water I could see further out a great white shark. When it saw that it had my attention it swum back and forth rather fast churning up the water, which also had the effect of blowing the two naiads away, pushing them further down into the water into a bed of seaweed.

I smiled, my second dad (I'll call my first dad father) was Poseidon the Sea God, and so far it seemed like I could control water, and that most creatures and animals who were involved with the water seemed to like me. I still remember those sharks from the school trip, so cute.

I stood up and moved to the pier carefully watching the great white, who'd, began to swim in circles at the end of it.

I know what you're thinking, 'you're an idiot don't head towards the giant shark, Have you never seen Jaws?' But I guess you could say I had a feeling the shark wouldn't attack me, I just felt safe when I headed towards it, and I trust my gut feelings.

The great white was average looking, grey on the top with a white belly and small beady pitch black eyes, but that was where the average ended. It was about 20 to 25 feet long, I had read somewhere that the largest great white ever found was twenty feet, they had obviously never seen this one before. It had also been around 5,000 pounds; that meant that this one was well above it.

At this point you must be wondering what in the Hades is wrong with me, or maybe some of you might actually have faith in my gut feeling and if so thank you for trusting me. Unlike some people we shall not mention, you shall be shunned.

I reached the end of the dock and laid down on my stomach, so my face was over the edge of the dock. Reaching down I put my hand in the water as the shark swum by, petting its back.

For about twenty minutes I laid there petting and scratching the shark as it swum around me. The naiads came swimming back after a while, scowling at the shark as they pulled seaweed out of their hair.

It was calming and relaxing to me, so it was with regret that I patted the shark on the back, I'm gunna calm him Chompers, and said goodbye. He did a flip in the water nuzzled my still submerged hand and swum away off towards the Ocean that was connected to the lake.

I got up and headed back to cabin eleven since it was late and probably getting close to seven.

Authors Note: Okay so here is my question do you guys want a pairing, because I wasn't really planning any. So if you do please tell me who'd you like and as long as it's reasonable I'll consider it. Just so you know Grover is not an option since he is her practical brother in the story I'm not sure about Luke yet I made him act more like an overprotective brother really, and I don't want to turn him to be evil so I have a plan for him, but he probably won't be a pairing option either.


	6. Chapter 6

Authors note: Sorry this is late my computer crashed, but it's fixed now. Anyways, so just to be clear no pairings will happen for a while Azalea's only ten, and I'm not pimping out ten year old so she had a man in her life, that can wait till way later. I just wanted everyone to have a chance to say what pairing they wanted. Thanks to Shadow Wolf 15846, princessabble10, Guest (you know who you are), aspygirlredo, Forestfirekid, mizz-shy-gurl, Tinkering Shade, Lourdes08, shflister, Hunteress Of the Stars, percyjacksonfan135, Ice-Snow-Witch, ztenshi104, Padfootette, StarlightShivers, and purple sky always for reviewing this chapter, and thanks to everyone else who has read and reviewed before as well. I feel like I ment to tell you something else but oh well.

Disclaimer- I own nothing!

When I made it back to cabin eleven I found everyone in the cabin talking or messing around, waiting for dinner. I had noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features. Sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, and mischievous eyebrows were traits of children of Hermes apparently. Which made sense in a way; they were the features that just screamed trouble maker, the kind that made teachers regret the choices in life that led them up to teaching that kid.

No one noticed me when I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down.

I saw Luke heading over; he'd apparently had finished whatever he had to do.

"Here Shrimp, I got you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."

"Aww, thanks Surfer Boy."

"No prob, Shrimp" he said as he sat beside me, leaning against the wall.

He had barely gotten comfortable before I heard a horn blow in the distance; I think it was a conch shell.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Luke stood up while yelling, "Eleven, fall in!" Reaching down he pulled me to my feet, and ruffled my hair, "Get in line Shrimp, time for food."

I felt like crying I was so happy, food, the greatest thing ever.

The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in the order of seniority, any guess to who was dead last, don't worry it'll come to you.

Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow, naiads came from the lake, and wood nymphs came from the trees, literally, joining the ever growing crowd.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. In the center of it was a fire that burned in a bronze brazier that was about the size of a bath tub. Each cabin had a table to themselves, all of them covered in white cloth, trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven was the exact opposite, we were all squished together like sardines in a can. Half of me hung off the end of the bench and I would have fallen off of it completely if it wasn't for Luke shoving everyone down further so I had more room.

I waved wildly at Grover when I saw him. He was sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blonde boys, who all shared a strong resemblance to Mr. I-desperately-need-an-AA-meeting. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table to small for him.

The troublesome women sat at table six with a bunch of serious looking athletic kids, all with her grey eyes and honey blonde hair.

Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She seemed to have forgotten about the incident where I became one with the plumbing and therefore the Queen of the bathroom (I claim thee title and will now be referred to as such). She was laughing and belching alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised his glass saying, "To the gods!"

Everyone else raised their glass saying the same thing.

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes! Barbecue. My glass was empty but Luke said, "Speak to it, whatever you want- nonalcoholic, of course."

I said Mountain Dew, because to me that was the shit.

My glass filled up with a fizzy green liquid. Then thinking about it I said, "Blue Mountain Dew."

The fizzy liquid flashed to blue, which right now I'm sure your thinking 'there's blue mountain dew, why's it so special'. Well it's not special I just want something blue to drink, why are you questioning me are you the coppers aka- the fuzz, aka- Bizzies, aka- pigs, aka- bacon, aka- bulle, ak… wall you get the point.

"Here, Shrimp," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.

I loaded my plate full of tasty goodness, ah meat the best kind of meat. I was going to take a bite when I noticed that everybody was getting up, carrying their plates to the fire in the center of the pavilion.

"Come on," Luke said.

As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, or the warmest most buttery role was thrown in, the horrid crime being committed before my eyes was soul shattering. I…I need a moment to mourn the loss of the glorious food, we will miss you.

Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."

Thank the gods, I though they expected me to commit such a heinous crime for no reason.

Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."

I was next.

My hand shook as I forced it to scrape a big slice of brisket into the flames.

My soul just died a little inside.

'Umm, an offering to Poseidon, Hades, Ares, Hestia, and whoever created the mist.'

When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.

It smelled like hot chocolate, fresh baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill, wild flowers, a rainstorm, and a hundred other good things that had no business smelling good together, but they did. I could almost believe that the gods could live off the smoke.

After we had returned to our seats and finished our meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge dramatic sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all of you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

The Ares table erupted in cheering.

"Personally," Mr. D continued. "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today, Ariel Pots."

Chiron murmured something.

"Err, Azalea Potter," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly camp fire, go on."

Everyone cheered. We all headed down towards the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores while we joked around, mmmhhh s'mores. The funny thing was that I didn't feel like anyone was staring anymore, I felt like I was home.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into the night sky, the conch horn blew again. Luke picked me up, after seeing me stand up and fell back down from how tired I was. He carried me, so my head rested on his shoulder, and followed everyone else back to the cabins.

Tucking me into the purple sleeping bag he'd stolen from me he smiled gently down at me and ruffled my hair saying, "Night Shrimp."

I started to say good night only to be interrupted by a yawn. By the time it was over I was already fast asleep.

1st-rule-of-fanfiction:-you-do-not-talk-about-fanf iction-2nd-rule-of-fanfiction-you-DO-NOT-talk-abou t-fanfiction

The next few days I started to settle into a routine that felt almost normal, if you didn't count the lesson or the teachers.

Every morning I took Ancient Greek lessons from Anna (aka Annabeth), we talked about the gods and goddesses. I found Ancient Greek was easy to read and I barely ever needed help with it.

The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but after I had caused another squirrel out of a total of five to have a heart attack, he thought it was best if I quiet while I was ahead.

I was pretty good at foot racing, no were near as good as the teachers though, since the wood-nymphs had so much experience running from gods. And I decided to accept the fact I was slower than a tree, and before you say anything about my speed let's see you try.

Wrestling went… well. Let's just say my opponent was Clarisse most of the time and… well me and the mat where close acquaintances by the end.

One thing I really excelled at was canoeing; I was a master when it comes to a boat. I think I should become a pirate at this rate.

I knew everyone was watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it.

I ate dinner with cabin eleven every day, scraping a part of my meal into the fire, I think I'm scarred for life. I always did my same thought pattern to the same gods, and every day I wondered if it was the day my dad would finally claim me. But it never happened.

I could kind of understand the hatred Luke had towards his dad. But I also could understand something else. They were gods and they usually had something more important that needed done. But then there's the same argument, their a god couldn't they drop by for a second and say hi?

Thursday afternoon, three days after I had arrived at camp, I had my first sword fight. Everyone in cabin eleven had gathered in the big circular arena, were Luke was our instructor.

We started with the basics, stabbing and slashing, using the poor straw dummies as targets. Well they did, I just stood there awkwardly watching them, no one noticed, since they were too busy mutilating their poor targets, the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz would be horrified.

"Shrimp," Luke called walking over. "Why aren't you practicing?"

"I need a sword?" I said slowly. "And I was never given one."

Luke let out a sigh, "Here," he said, reaching beside him and pulling some random sword off of a weapon rack that he then handed to me.

He handed a ten year old a weapon, it's official, Luke is not allowed kids. I had started a list in my head for the reasons Luke wasn't allowed kids since I had gotten her, three days ago. One reason was this obviously, another was the fact he'd use his darling little child to steal, since I had helped him rob the camp store over six times by now.

He also had tried to use me as a way to flirt with girls at camp, but after he had been slapped for the fifth time due to some misunderstandings that I'd cause out of annoyance he'd given up. That's not even counting the times a girl had ran away from him due to what I'd said, sexually transmitted diseases were always a deal breaker.

The moment I held the sword in my hand I felt Riptide let out a sad whine, upset I was going to use another weapon. Without thinking it through I dropped the sword letting it fall to the ground. It felt wrong and clumsy in my hands, I didn't like it.

"Shrimp you need a sword for sword training." Luke said reaching down to grab the dropped sword so he could give it back.

Riptide seemed to glare at the sword, which was weird since it had no eyes. With an angry grumbling noise I felt the bracelet on my wrist disappear. In my hand a sword formed, it was a shimmering bronze color with black streaks, it had a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. Luke stared, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Okay, then," he muttered. "Let's get back to practice."

After twenty minutes of stabbing at a stuffed dummy we moved to dueling pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time, the asshole. I just knew he was doing this as an excuse so he could have his revenge.

"Good luck." A camper said. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

…Yippee…

Luke showed me thrust and parries and shield block the hard way. With every swipe I was knocked on my ass again, and he grew a little happier taking pleasure in his revenge, the asshole is strong in this one.

During one of the breaks I poured water on my head to try and wash some dirt out, I instantly felt better. I think it was of who my dad was.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Shrimp doesn't mind I'd like to give you guys a demo."

He didn't even try to pretend to ask for my permission.

Everyone gathered, he told them that he was going to show a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that they had no choice but to drop it.

"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me, no laughing at Shrimp now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique.

He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion, and sure enough the sword clattered out of my hand and to the ground, poor Riptide.

"Now in real time, ready shrimp? And Go!"

Luke came after me, but somehow I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. When it came to my size there were the positives and there were the negatives. The positives were I was short, small, and fast, trying to keep track of someone's limbs when they were naturally out of your eye sight was hard for Luke. The negatives were the fact Luke was stronger than me easily pushing me back when he used full force, and that his arms were longer giving him a further reach.

During one of his swings, my senses opened up, and I saw his attacks coming, I countered. I step forward and tried to thrust my own sword. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.

Things with Riptide in sword form grew worse, it was slowly getting heavier and harder to use. Give me a scythe any day and I could kick ass, with a sword, not so much.

I knew Luke was going to win in a couple of seconds, so I figured, what the hell?

I tried the disarming maneuver.

My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into the downwards thrust.

Clang.

Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.

The other campers were silent.

I lowered my sword. "Oh, umm, I wasn't actually expecting that to work."

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.

His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Shrimp that was awesome do it again!"

So we did it again and again, over and over. It was fifty-fifty the whole time Luke would win one, then we'd take a break, I'd use my water cheat, and then I would win. By the end of it I was so tired; my muscles were burning from being used so much, even my skin hurt.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na -na-na-na-na-na-na-na-Lizzie!

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, hiding from Chiron. Apparently he felt it was necessary for me to climb the walk wall. I didn't agree.

You'd think running away from a half-man-half-horse would be harder, but after you take out the knees with a well placed kick, you'd be surprised.

During my escape I ran into Grover who was actually heading to the rock wall to climb it, the poor dear has some screws loose it seems. So in an act of common courtesy I kidnapped him to stop him from making that mistake.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket weaving, until I asked how his conversation went with Mr. D and the Council of Cloven Elders.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

"Fine," he said, "just great."

"Grover, I think someone is lying." I said in a singsong voice.

"Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you go on quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

"That's great! If I ever get a quest then you can come along." I said.

"Y-you want ME to go on a quest with you?" Grover said, disbelieve clear in his voice.

"Of course, what would I do without my goat man around?"

"I… thanks Liz." Grover said smiling happily at me.

"So Grover," I said, "I get that Hera's cabin is empty and the same for Artemis, but why are Zeus's and Poseidon's empty?"

Grover tensed and shifted his hooves uncomfortably, "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. So they all swore an oath on the River Styx that they wouldn't have any more kids"

I… well that wasn't good.

"Grover, where's Hades cabin?"

"Hades doesn't have a cabin here, just like he doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld."

"That's bullshit Grover, one of the stupidest things I've ever heard." I cried angrily.

"B-but Liz! He's the ruler of the Underworld!" Grover cried in surprise.

"So? What about his kids, you shouldn't judge someone on how their parent's act, that's narrow minded and a stupid thing to do. Besides you have to admit Hades always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to anything. I bet he's getting blamed for something right now that he didn't do just because he's the Lord of the Dead."

Grover seemed to be traumatized by my words so I decided to take pity on him… sort of.

"So… did the brothers keep their word?" I mentally crossed my fingers, I didn't want to be the only person whose birth broke a supposable unbreakable oath that was made for the safety of earth's civilization, and yeah I'd feel a bit better.

Grover's face darkened, "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo-he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia… well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought down a terrible fate on his daughter.

Oh… that doesn't sound good.

Grover sighed running a hand through his hair, "When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried escorting her with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. But in the end the monster caught up and Thalia sacrificed herself. Zeus tacking pity on her turned her into that pine tree, her sprit helps protect the borders of the valley, it's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

This-Dear-Readers-Is-A-Scene-Changer-Since-I-Reali zed-Fanfiction-Hates-Lines-Who'd-Ah-Thunk-It

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Anna and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but bright red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head, I think I might steal that I want it so much.

I turned to look up at Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags."

"Yeah."

I lost view of them then, so I started to jump up and down trying to see over everyones heads, it didn't work…

Luke seeing my problem smiled at me fondly while chuckling, he then reached down and picked me up, putting me up on his shoulders so I could see over the crowd.

I laughed in happily at being so tall, while asking him, "Does Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always Shrimp," he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do- repaint the flag?"

He grinned or at least that's what I thought he did since from where I'm sitting I could only see his cheeks moving up. "You'll see. First we have to get one." He said.

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave me a sly look saying, "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower time, chore schedules, and the best slots for activates-in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everyone else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughter didn't seem to take much of an interest when it came to fighting; they were in their words, lovers not fighters, but you never know. Constant vigilance and all that, when will I meet someone with my level of paranoia? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

There were only four Hephaestus kids, but they were all big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. And that of course left Ares cabin: a dozen of the biggest, toughest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game, and all magical items are allowed. The banner mist be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed, and I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

Luke carried me around looking at them. He soon gently put me down and then began to strap armor in himself and then me, or at least he tried. The moment he reached over to start putting armor on me the Minotaur hoodie reacted, like it knew what he was going to do. Like before, when it had turned into a hoodie, the cloth moved, hardening and wrapping around me until it created a set of black and leather armor on me.

Luke only sighed, "Of course," he muttered shaking his head.

Giving me a shield, which was rather heavy, as Riptide formed into sword mode in my hand, unhappily though since Riptide seemed to like its scythe from better. Luke said, "You're on border patrol, it should keep you somewhat safe, since it's your first capture the flag."

Plopping a helmet onto my head, that had a blue horsehair plume on it, oppose to Ares red, he smiled at me saying, "You'll do fine Shrimp."

Anna yelled, "Blue team forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed to the north woods.

When we got to the woods Luke said good bye, ruffling my helmets plume and walked off leaving me with Anna. It was a warm sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view and the chirping of crickets filing it. She stationed me next to a small creek that gurgled over some rocks, and then she went off into the woods.

My hands tightened around Riptide as it purred reassuringly to me, trying to sooth my worries of being attacked.

Far away, the cinch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I'm missing all the fun.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

I raised my shield instinctively, protecting myself.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Capture her." Clarisse yelled.

Her eyes narrowed at me through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering and sparking with red tip. And I think I should avoid it after seeing that, it seemed to be electric. Her siblings had only the standard issued bronze swords-not that that made me feel any better. Because a fight with the odds five against one, one being a ten year old at that, seemed a bit excessive.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in my sight, I could run, or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin. And before you say it yes I know it wasn't the smartest decision I've made in my life.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but soon they all had me surrounded and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear.

You could only imagine their surprise when I disappeared, reappearing behind one of the Ares campers and slamming the hilt of my blade into his hand knocking the sword out of it. Before it could even hit the ground I had teleported the falling sword far away, and out of reach, it seemed all those magician street shows I did for money are paying off.

"Hey, how did yo-"he stated to say confusion in his voice. But I was already moving, kicking him hard in the back of the knee probably making it go numb, and making him fall hard to the ground, I then appearing behind another guy. He spun around to face me, but I was already hitting him in the side with the side of my sword, knocking the breath out of him. He fell to the ground gripping his side, which would sport a nice bruise in the morning; his sword fell out of his hands and was teleported away.

And another one bites the dust.

The three remaining Ares campers backed up and regrouped, watching me warily now.

It was too bad they didn't know about my ability to pick up object, within a certain size range, so when a squirrel was dropped on one of their heads.

He… went… nuts.

Letting out a scream a three year old girl would be proud of, he ran around widely swatting at his head as the squirrel ran around widely across his body, chattering angrily at him. With a thump he ran into a tree and fell flat on his back dazing him, the squirrel with one last angry squeak ran up the tree.

The last two were even more focused on me, watching my every move. I admit it; if it wasn't for them underestimating me I wouldn't have been able to take them out so easily

Backing up, my feet splashed into water, relaxing me even more. I moved further into the water until I was standing in the center of the stream. The last Ares ran up to me, raising his sword up at me like a baseball bat, getting ready to take a swing at me.

The moment his feet hit water I acted. Focusing on the water, I felt the same thing I felt in the bathroom, I tug at the pit of my stomach. Everyone should know not to screw with the bathroom Queen.

Hoping it would work the way I was imagining it, I raised my hand. No sooner had I done this, that a hand made out of water rose from the water, only it was much bigger mine. Aiming it at the Ares camper who was trying to get the hell out of there, I closed my hand, catching him. Then pulling back my arm I pretended to throw something opening my hand. The water hand copied my motions exactly sending the Ares camper tumbling head over heels across the forest floor. He finally stopped tumbling, flopping down on his back, as he laid there dizzy.

Clarisse started to move forward, her spear raised, then we both heard yelling, and elated screams, I saw Luke racing towards the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a curse. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven.

The game was over, we'd won.

I was about to go join them when Anna's voice, right next to me in the creek said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap like she's just taken off her head.

Before I could respond, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before, a howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I translated to: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Anna drew her sword. There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me… fuck all kinds of ducks.

Nobody moved except Anna, who yelled, "Liz, run!"

She moved to stand in front of me and without thinking I waved me hand, making the water push her to the side, out of the way, and onto the shore. It leaped then-an enormous shadow with teeth-and just as it was about to hit me I teleported further down the creek onto the muddy shore.

With n angry snarl it chased me, just managing to get out of the way of a cluster of arrows that plopped dully into the water.

Riptide grew warm in my hand with excitement. That's when I noticed it; Riptide was affecting me somewhat I could feel its emotions flowing into my head influencing my own to feel the same. And I didn't mind, it wasn't that strong, and I got the feeling Riptide meant no harm in it and would never try to hurt me. Besides it was probably the only reason I hadn't frozen in battle yet.

Riptide shifted in my hand growing longer and thinner beneath it until it was in scythe form. The blade flashed, happy about the battle.

I ran towards the hound, ignoring the screaming campers around me. When I was close to its snapping jaws, I leaned back. And further back, until I was lying almost flat on my back, willing the water to act like mud around me. Making me slide like a baseball player would for a base.

I angled my scythe blade so it was held up behind me and tightened my hold.

Then I slid straight past its snapping jaws and right under its belly, my scythe blade following me. It let out a pained screeching noise as my blade cut smoothly into its chest. I slide the whole length of its body my blade following behind me and cutting its stomach open as well, a stream of golden dust following me.

The hound burst into golden dust behind me as I shakily stood, Riptide melting in my hands with a satisfied purr and reforming into my bracelet.

When something floated by in the stream I grabbed it feeling one of the hound's fangs in my hand, it was about six inches long, razor sharp, and a pure white.

By some miracle, I was still alive.

Chiron totted up next to me, a bow in his hand, and his face grim.

"Di immortals!" Anna said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't… they're not suppose to…"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said, "someone inside the camp."

"Shrimp!" Luke yelled as he ran over. Pulling me out of the stream, which made me feel like I was about to pass out, he hugged me protectively to his chest as I rested my head on his shoulder tiredly.

"What are you trying to do you little brat," he muttered softly. "Trying to give me a heart attack? I swear I'll have grey hairs within a week."

Luke was about to say something else when he gasped, along with everyone else. They all were staring at something above my head.

Luke only sighed, saying, "Of course."

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, Luke stepping away from me to do so.

"Poseidon," Chiron said. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail,

Azalea Potter, Daughter of the Sea God."

This-is-my-story-there-are-many-like-it,-but-this- one-is-mine

The next morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three.

I didn't have to share with anyone; I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur jacket, my shoulder bag full of clothes, and my toiletries. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick my activities, and call lights out whenever I wanted.

Ehh, wasn't that bad, I kind of missed the Hermes cabin though.

But Luke was around me constantly, since he had turned into a mother hen at this point. He worried if I was getting enough sleep, and if it was too cold in my empty cabin, maybe I should move back in to cabin eleven, he was sure he could sneak me back in, and I should also sit at their table too so he could make sure I ate enough, I was a growing girl.

It was like he was a very over protective mom, trying to convince her child to move back into the house so they could be protected better. I thought it was as funny as hell. Especially when Luke saw me anytime during the day. He'd march over and ask me why I never visit him anymore, then he's straighten my clothes, fix my hair, and if I had any smudges on my face he'd pull out a handkerchief and wipe my face muttering under his breath about how kids never change and how I needed to stop rough housing.

The one day I accidently gave myself a small cut on my hand from falling. Luke saw the whole thing and flipped. He ran up to me grasping me to his chest while yelling about how his darling little Shrimp was horribly hurt, and great Zeus his darling baby sister was hurt, I think he was acting this dramatic on purpose-at least I hoped so-, he then exclaimed I was going to bleed to death when he saw the cut. Pulling a huge first aid kit from fricken no where, he sprayed the cut with something, put a band-aid over it, that was covered in pictures of taco's for some reason. He then leaned down and kissed the band-aid, and then patting me on the head, he gave me a lollypop.

Half of the Hermes cabin was around me through the whole day just so they could watch it happen. The same went for most of the camp.

No one acted that different to me much, some people avoided me, but if Luke was around they didn't, Luke got really, REALLY mad if he saw anyone avoiding me. This had the nice affect of everyone acting the same to as they had before the capture the flag game, sort of.

I strung the hellhound tooth on a metal chain and wore it as a necklace, and everything continues on.

One morning I woke up, in a tangle of blankets on the floor, as thunder rolled across the sky outside.

I heard a clopping noise at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.

"Come in." I said from my blanket fort on the floor, only my head showing.

Grove trotted in, looking worried, rolling his eyes when he saw me he said, "Mr. D wants to see you."

"Why?"

"He wants to kill… I mean. I'd better let him tell you."

I untangled myself from the blankets, got dressed, and followed him.

For days, I'd been expecting a summon to the Big House. Now that it had been revealed who my dad was, I expected to get into some trouble for it. So Mr. D must be delivering the verdict.

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we would need an umbrella.

"No, it never rains here unless we want it to."

Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up, "if it isn't our little celebrity."

I waited.

"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father.

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said, rolling his eyes.

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.

"I would just get rid of you to solve this problem, but Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D" Chiron put in.

"Nonsense, girl wouldn't feel a thing." Mr. D said. "Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If I get back and the girl is still here, I'll turn her into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand?"

Dionysus snapped his fingers.

The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone leaving behind the smell of fresh-pressed grapes.

Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained.

"So…" Chiron said. "Will you accept a quest?"

I glanced at Grover, who sat there crossing his fingers.

"Yes, as long as Grover can come." I said firmly.

Chiron nodded, as Grover whimpered. "If the Oracle accepts you, you'll be going on a quest to find and return the master bolt. It's been stolen from Zeus; he thinks that you in fact stole it. So Poseidon and Zeus have been fighting, Zeus blaming him for the disappearance, and Poseidon wanting an apology. But before you can officially take up the quest, you must first consult the Oracle."

"Aright" I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

"Then it's your turn to consult the Oracle." Chiron said. "Go up stairs, Azalea Potter, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

I stopped walking to the door, spinning around to face him saying, "Wait what!?"

But Chiron shoved me through the doorway and slammed the door shut yelling, "Yes just up those stairs, have fun."

Where're-off-to-see-the-prophet-the-wonderful-atti c-prophet-because-because-because-because-she's-mu mmified-and-can't-walk-to-us

Four flights up, the stairs ended at a green trapdoor.

I pulled the cord, and the door swung down, a ladder clattering into place.

The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood, with something else… a smell I remembered from biology class, reptiles, the smell of snakes.

I held my breath and climbed.

The attic was filled with Greek hero junk; armor stands covered in cobwebs: once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather streamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, and various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: mummy. Not the wrapped-in-a-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk kind. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.

So you can understand my complete horror and shock when she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trap door, every horror movie I'd ever seen flashed in my head, but the moment I got close the door slammed shut, and when I tried to teleport I could feel the mist wrap around me tighter holding me in place. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain, Riptide snarled angrily and it was only my soothing and calming thoughts directed at it that kept Riptide from lashing out and attacking the voice in my head.

I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python, approach, seeker, and ask.

I eyed the window wondering if a fall from this height would actually kill me, I wouldn't hurt to try. Glancing around I couldn't stop the smile from coming to my face when I saw the parachute sitting in the corner of the attic, its worth a try right?

Reaching to grab it I saw a tag attached to it reading: Parachute, used once, never opened warning-small stain. Well shit.

Taking a deep breath I faced the mummy, it wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates, Granny Artopos, Gran Clotho, and Grandma Lachesis, ancient powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me either.

I got the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"

The mist swirled around me, making it so it was all I could see.

A raspy voice began to speak, sounding like it was coming from all around me.

You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned.

You shall be betrayed by someone you know.

And you shall fail to save what matters most in, in the end.

The mist began to disappear around me, letting me see the attic again. It crept back to the mummy sliding back into her mouth.

I started to move back to the trapdoor my head filled with thoughts, when I raspy voice spoke. "Well wasn't that a bit over dramatic?"

The table that held all the pickled monster-part jars flickered. Everything on it disappeared as a tea set reappeared in its place. Four chairs appeared around it, three of them occupied. Sitting in the middle of the attic were the three Fates, Granny Artopos, Gran Clotho, and Grandma Lachesis.

"Not dramatic enough if you ask me." Lachesis said looking over at Artopos. "This is dramatic!" With those words Lachesis raised her hands making a breeze ruffle her clothing, turning it into a gypsy outfit. Cloth swung down from the ceiling giving the effect of being inside a carnival tent, as a thick purple cloth appeared on the table with a glass ball in the middle.

"Really!?" Artopos yelled, "must you act this way at your age?"

Lachesis only cackled as she waved her hand at Artopos, making a cloth gag appear around her mouth, muffled yells came from it.

"Now Azalea Potter…I…shall…reveal…your…FUTURE!" Lachesis said, waving her hands around the crystal ball.

Clotho snored in her chair slumped over.

"Skyrim legend tells of a hero know as the Dragonborn, a warrior with the body of a mortal and soul of a dragon it is to destroy the evil dragon Alduin."

"Umm… Grandma Lachesis?" I said slowly.

"Yes dear?"

"I think that's off of the Skyrim game."

Lachesis frowned, "Well then let's try again."

She waved her hands around the crystal ball, making it glow, as the room grew darker around us.

"Twelve years ago," Lachesis said in an ominous voice. "A nine-tailed fox suddenly appeared. It's tails lashed out, smashing mountains, and sending tidal waves crashing to the shores. The ninja rose up to defe-"

"Grandma Lachesis," I interrupted. "I think that's the intro to Naruto."

"Fiddle sticks," she muttered.

Artopos continued to scream under her gag as Clotho snored away.

"Okay, this one's going to work." With a snap of her fingers the room became pitch black, the only light in the room was from the crystal ball, which pulsed softly in a bright white, illuminating Lachesis face.

Clearing her throat she hunched further over the crystal ball, in a whisper she began to talk.

"A long time ago…in a galaxy far, away…"

With a sigh I said "Star Wars."

She scowled, snapping her fingers. The cloth around us disappeared, revealing the attic again; the table cleared itself as the cloth and crystal ball faded away.

Artopos let out another scream as Clotho jerked awake, with a snort, from all the light.

"Oh all right…" Lachesis said with a sigh, waving her hand.

The gag on Artopos mouth disappeared, and she began to yell angrily at Lachesis for being immature, Lachesis just rolled her eyes making talking motions with her hand.

Clotho turned, ignoring the two, and then gasped in delight when she saw the Oracle. "Ohh, look at her clothing there just so stylish!" With a happy giggle, Clotho flicked her shirt making them shimmer into an outfit you'd find on a hippie. Looking through her large sunglasses Clotho asked, "I look trendy right?"

Artopos sneered, "Not at all, today's fashion is so uncivilized. I'll show you true fashion." With an arrogant toss of her hair, her clothing changed. She was wearing an old fashion black Victorian dress, with an umbrella over her shoulder and white gloves on her hands.

"This is true fashion." She said her back ram rod straight and her nose in the air.

"You poor fools, you wouldn't know fashion if it beat you over the head with a stick. This is fashion." With a dramatic wave of Lachesis hand her clothes changed into something Elvis would be proud of. Disco is the future my darlings," she said as her clothes sparkled from all the fake jewels and glitter on them. Disco indeed.

"One thing we can all agree with though," Clotho said.

"What?" the other two sisters asked.

"Were all dressed better than the Oracle."

Artopos and Lachesis nodded in agreement.

No sooner had they said this, that the green smoke came pouring out of the Oracle at a fast rate like it was angry.

Clotho calmly stood up, walked over to the Oracle, reached into her bag, and pulled out a roll of duct tape. Which was then used to wrap the Oracles' head in, immediately the green smoke stopped as the mouth was covered in duct tape. "Ahh," Clotho said, "duct tape solves everything."

"And don't worry about what she said dear," Lachesis said turning to look at me. "She's always being much to dark and dramatic, it's never as bad as she says it is."

"You better get going though, those people down stairs will be wondering what you're up to." Artopos said in a bored voice.

Nodding my head I said good bye as I raced down the steps.

It was time to start my quest.


	7. Chapter 7

Authors Note: Hello! I know this chapter is short, well for chapters I make at least but don't worry since it's so short, I'll upload the next chapter by Friday. Liz get's angry, Grover has bad luck.

Thanks to Lourdea08, Padfootette, Percyjacksonfan135, mizz-shy-gurl, purple sky always, Ryaaaaann, Random passerby, TheStoryDreamer, Shadow Fox, Guest, StarryEyesC, WWW 93 Diagon Alley, and anonymous-2001 for reviewing the last chapter. And thanks to everyone else who has read or reviewed so far.

WWW 93 Diagon Alley- she will but I have an idea for another friend that I'm excited about and it makes sense to.

ShadowFox- I do plan to change some things but that won't be till a little later, and a lot more changes will happen when she starts to since she doesn't act anything like Harry.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and no inanimate objects were hurt in the writing of this story.

"Well?" Chiron asked me.

"Well I still have my sanity, so that's something."

Grover scoffed…jerk.

I slumped, gracefully, into a chair at the pinochle table, "She said I shall retrieve what was stolen, makes me feel a dog."

Grover leaned forward in his chair, a piece of aluminum hung from his chin, "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron asked, "This is important."

"Ummmm, I'd go west…face a god, completely possible you know only a god…ummm…let's see. Oh yeah the god I'm facing has turned, that sounds even better, and that I would go, be a nice little fetcher, and retrieve what was stolen, seeing it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said.

Chiron didn't look satisfied, "Anything else?"

"Not that I can remember," I said. "But if you want a much more accurate description next time, you can come with me. And if the worse possible cause scenario happens, and we go insane, then we can be insane together. I've always heard insanity loves company."

"Liz, perhaps…" Chiron started to say.

"What," I interrupted, "is not knowing what happened driving you insane?"

So maybe I was being a jerk, what can I say my soul was removed to make room for all this sarcasm. Also, I was a little peeved, I mean, just because he was a mythical centaur that had been teaching for the last couple hundred of years doesn't give him the right to act like that. If he won't tell me the dangers and full story behind things before I go do them, like the fact the Oracle can make you go insane, then I won't tell him everything either.

I hate being kept in the dark for my own, how you would say it, safety and my own good. What a bunch of bull.

It never ended well, when you didn't know the full story behind something, because then people started to point fingers and assume things, and then it turned into a giant shit storm.

Chiron was frowning at me as Grover nervously grabbed a can beside him and took a bite. He was so nervous, apparently, that he hadn't even noticed that the can he grabbed was full, and unopened.

"PSSSHHHH!"

With aloud fizzing noise the can exploded open, soda going everywhere.

"Oopss," Grover whimpered, soda dripping from his hair and face.

"So," I drawled, "Where do I go? Who's this god to the west?"

"Ah, think Liz," Chiron said looking away from the blushing Grover who was wringing out the corners of his shirt. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Somebody else who wants to take over, I guess?"

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

Oh he did not just go there, someone hold Riptide while I go kick his donkey ass.

Don't get me wrong, I accept the fact that Hades could be completely responsible for everything, but to just jump to such a conclusion, so quickly, not even thinking it through. My inner paranoid thoughts just screamed at the crime being committed. For all we know it could have been the Easter bunny, don't let his adorableness trick you it's all a ploy, but no one should be ruled out until their death, everyone is a suspect. And even then you could never completely rule out dead people because well… there's always the chance of zombies.

"Hades," Grover whimpered as he flinched back in fear, falling out of his chair hitting the leg of the table. A few, still half-full, cans of soda fell over, spilling all over Grover's head, poor guy.

Chiron nodded, "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

"Chiron, you shouldn't just jump to conclusions." I said glaring at him in annoyance.

"You make it sound like everything that happened to him was something he disserved, and while I won't say that it couldn't have been him I will say that there is a chance that it wasn't him. And just because he's the Lord of the Dead doesn't mean he's automatically evil, he didn't pick his domain he was tricked into it, by his brother no less. Death and darkness doesn't equal evil, just because you don't understand something or are afraid of it doesn't make it bad. Hell you should be thankful of death, if it wasn't for death existing we'd be on an overcrowded world suffering from things like starvation and overpopulation with no escape and no end, and it only grow worse each day. I know he probably doesn't like me but I can't really blame him at least he has a solid reason unlike some people." Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were two who came to mind.

Chiron was shocked from my outburst his jaw hanging open, Grover not so much. Grover just let out an exasperated sigh like he expected the reaction, shaking his head.

"But the Fury…" Chiron said.

"Yeah, so what threats against my life aren't new, they've been happening for most of my life," I said. "So let's go about this reasonably and use that thing called logic and reasoning. So you once told me that gods can't steal each other's symbol of power, right? Hades, someone who not only has been forced to take an oath on not having kids, but is also the only one out of three who has not broken it yet, doesn't have any kids to steal it for him. So the next argument is that he'd get another gods kid to steal for him, and I was told how you don't let campers go on quest anymore for the past couple years. That means that Hades has to get another gods kid on his side while sneaking past not only Mr. D but also Zeus since he's always watching and listening to what's going on in the valley most of the time, if the thunder and lightning is anything to go off. There is also the fact that most campers here, if not all, dislike Hades automatically due to who he is.

And it has to be a kid from camp to. Zeus's symbol of power was stolen during a visit when the campers went there. But if he manage to talk a camper into doing that then anyone could too meaning that he can't be the only suspect. And his domain can only be a certain size right? So after the thousands of years he's been in charge of it, it must be filling up, and he's bound to get those people sooner or later, the only thing a war would do is to kill them faster so they go to him quicker. He's a god, immortal, so if he wanted those souls so badly all he has to do is wait some years."

"Yeah…but… Hades hated ALL heroes." Grover blurted out quickly, Chiron nodding his head in agreement.

"Pfff," I snorted. "So does Mr. D and lots of other gods from what I remember. And that's not even counting the amount of effort some gods spend attacking and hating other gods kids due to who their parents are, just so they can have some form of revenge out of hatred for that person's parents."

Chiron let out a sigh realizing that convincing me Hades was the root of all evil and everything that was bad in the world wouldn't work.

"Well even so, you must head west and that's the direction of the Underworld. So from what I can tell you must head there, and we shall see if the master bolt is or isn't there." He said.

"So Grover," I said smiling at him. "Want to go to hell with me?"

"Not funny, Liz," Grover groaned, rocking back and forth in his place on the floor.

"It'll be fine Grover, all we have to do is a few simple task. We just have to go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead, find the most powerful weapon in the universe, and get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice. Simple, no?"

Grover only let out a hysterical laugh as he rocked back and forth faster.

"So Chiron… how do we get to the Underworld." I asked.

"I thought it would be obvious enough," He said in surprise. "The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"Oh…so road trip?" I said.

"It's for the best, if you flew in a plane there is a very good chance you wouldn't come back down alive." Chiron explained.

Overhead, lighting crackled, thunder boomed… someone must have never told Zeus that eavesdropping is rude.

Chiron glanced up at the sky, worried, "You may bring two companions with you. Grover is one, the other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."

The air shimmered behind Chiron and a person become visible... troublesome women.

Anna stuffed her Yankees cap into her back pocket.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest Coral breathe," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."

Someone was a little full of themselves.

"Jeez blondie, that speech of yours wasn't that convincing."

"Blondie?" Anna spluttered in outrage. "Why you-you… seaweed brain brat!"

"That means a lot coming from a bird brain like you, owl girl."

"Well you-you…sponge brain, lobster hand, seal girl!"

"Barbie. Girly. Girl."

"Eel faced fish girl with the intelligence of Patrick star!"

"You bratty Princess stuck up…"

"Now, now," Chiron said raising his hands, as he tried to calm us, "there's no reason to fight."

"I REALLY don't want to take her on my quest with me Chiron."

"And while I wish you would willingly, she may be your only option for your third person." He said. "All the other campers are too scared to face off against Hades and Zeus's wrath and the only other person who would go with you, Luke, is still unsure and wary of quest since his last experience."

That was true I wouldn't want to make some random person join me on such a dangerous quest when all the danger was my fault and I couldn't put Luke through that. Whatever had happened on his last quest had really affected him that was when he really started to hate the gods.

"Well I guess if I have no choice, and I do need all the help I can get. So welcome to the gang bird brain."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed, rain poured down on the meadow that was never suppose to have violent weather.

'Drama queen' I thought glaring at the sky.

"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."

No one noticed the shadows under the table that were impossible dark, as they left to pack.

Who-took-the-cookie-from-the-cookie-jar?-I-don't-k now-but-who-ever-it-was-is-about-to-get-cut

It didn't take me long to pack, I'd never really unpacked my shoulder bag, and my Minotaur hoodie was already on me, with Riptide purring contently on my wrist, and my hell hound fang around my neck.

I had about $400 bucks in mortal money from what I'd saved, I always carried my own money since I wasn't going to leave it at home were Gabe could steal it, and the camp store gave me about twenty golden drachmas. They were these, big as Girl Scout cookie, coins with images of Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.

Chiron then gave me and Anna a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to use only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt.

Anna was bringing her voodoo Yankees cap, which was her twelfth-birthday gift from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. Riptide was way more kickass.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as a human. He wore a green rest-style cap, because when his curly hair was flat you could just see the tip of his horns. His bright, bright neon orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on, and he had a reed pipe in his pocket. Even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concert no. 12 and Hilary Duffs "So Yesterday".

Chiron was waiting for us in his horse form. Next to him stood Argus who, according to Grover, was the camp's head of security. He kept an eye on things you could say. He was wearing a chauffer's uniform so I guess he was driving us, why he was wearing the uniform though was beyond me. Maybe he just has a very strong fashion sense when it comes to work.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, eh, well, keep an eye on things."

I smiled up at Argus we grinned back down at me jingling the keys in his hands.

I heard someone running from behind us.

Luke was running up the hill, fast, waving his one arm around while the other…held a box of tissues.

"Shrimp, my darling little Shrimp!" Luke cried as he lunged forward and pulled me up into a hug, my feet hanging in the air.

"Oh, I can't believe this. You can't leave; the outside world is so dangerous and dirty! Anything could happen to you." He said placing me on my feet, a frown coming across his face.

"Look! You even have some dirt on your face right now." He said as he used a tissue to wipe at my face while he repeatedly muttered dirty and rough housing.

I sighed swiping at the tissue, "I'll be fine Luke, I'm only going to the, as you put it, 'outside world', you know the world I grew up."

"But-but what if something happens to you!?" Luke blubbered, blowing his nose in a tissue.

"Oh, my little Shrimp is growing up so fast!"

"I'm telling you I'll be fine." I said, trying to sooth him.

"I… you'll be safe?" Luke questioned.

"Yes."

"You'll make sure to eat a full healthy meal, including all your vegetables, and that you'll make sure to practice you impaling technique with your sword, and that you won't talk to stranger's unless it's a really hot chick, because then you have to get her numbers for me. You also have to stay clean, because the world is a dirty place, and to make sure you never get caught stealing, you should also remember to try to go for the most expensive thing there, and…."

"It's okay Luke I get it I'll be safe."

Luke glanced back and forth between me and the SUV we were taking several times.

"NO! I can't the world is to dirty for my little Shrimp!" he yelled as he jumped at me trying to pull me into another hug.

Chiron moved forward, grabbing Luke in the air mid-jump and holding him back.

"You should go… NOW, and I would hurry." Chiron said holding a thrashing Luke.

"No my little Shrimpy!" he yelled reaching for me, while he kicked his legs trying to get free of Chiron's hold.

"Go, now." Chiron wheezed out when one of Luke's feet hit him in the chest. "I can't hold him for much longer."

I sighed and walked away while shaking my head, and went to the white SUV sitting at the bottom of the hill. Behind me I could hear Luke yelling things like 'Shrimp', 'come back', 'let go of me you over grown pony', and 'it's too dirty out there imagine all the mud'.

When I got to the bottom of the hill I headed over to the SUV going to sit in the front seat.

"I call shotgun," Anna said when I was just opening the SUV's door.

"Okay," I said. "You can have that but I call front seat." And with that I jumped into the front seat beside Argus while Grover and a glaring Anna got into the back.

Why Anna wanted a shotgun so bad that she felt the need to call it I'll never know, maybe she's a gun fanatic.

The-wheels-on-the-van-go-round-and-round-round-and -round-round-and-round-the-wheels-SLAM-poor-Mr.-sq uirrel

Argus drove us out into the countryside, McDonalds and hundreds of other fast food restaurants and highway stops flashing by our windows as we travelled. It was surreal seeing all these things after being stuck in a camp for some time.

"So far so good," I said cheerfully. "Ten miles and not a monster in sight."

Grover groaned, "You just jinxed us."

Anna glared at me, "It's bad luck to talk that way, Coral breathe."

"Remind me again-why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you."

"Could've fooled me."

She sighed looking out the window, "Look were just not suppose to get along."

"Why?"

"Our parents…"

"That's stupid."

She huffed and crossed her arms glaring out the window.

Argus smiled at me, some if his eyes rolling, like he agreed with me.

It was sunset by the time Argus dropped us of at the Greyhound Station.

He unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then left, driving out of the parking lot.

I've-got-a-pocket-a-pocket-of-sunshine-I've-'Apoll o runs in'-give-it-back!-that's-my-sun!-'tackle'

We sat and waited for the Greyhound bus, and waited, and waited. We got so bored that we decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Anna was awesome at it, cause she's got hacks, and I wasn't too bad at it either.

We realized this wasn't going to work though when I tossed the apple towards Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one huge bite it was gone core and all. So we tried it again with a can, which had the same results, and then we tried to use a random stuff animal but when I kicked it to Anna she screamed and ran away.

Apparently she doesn't like spiders even if it's a stuffed animal spider. And when I threw it at Grover we found out he even had a taste for stuffed animal toys.

Then those crazies decided to use a random doll head they found and by found I mean tore of some doll they found in the lost-and-found box and well…

Hey I've seen Chucky what if that things possessed and comes back to stalk me and be all around creepy I wasn't touching it. So there we where me sitting on a bench holding my feet up from touching the floor and staring down at the doll head on the floor with suspicion, that Anna had thrown at me. Anna half way up a lamp post pole staring down at a tiny plastic spider that I had thrown at her and Grover going through the recycling bin like it was a candy store.

Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like a blood hound.

"What is it?"

"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."

But I still looked around trying to spot something odd.

I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. They stowed their bags while I kept mine since it was just a shoulder bag and it had everything I needed in it, like snacks and my bottle of water.

As the last passengers got on, Anna gaped saying urgently, "Liz."

An old lady had just boarded the bus. That old lady was Mrs. Dodds herself.

I scrunched down in my seat.

I wonder if she's mad at me for killing her?

Behind her came two more old ladies that looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds.

They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two in the aisle seats crossed their legs over the walk way, making an X. It was casual enough but made it impossible to leave.

"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortals!"

"It's okay," Anna said. "The Furies, the three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem, no problem. We'll just slip out the window.

"They don't open," Grover moaned.

"A back entrance?" she suggested.

"Hey," I said. "If you want to try to flush yourself down the toilet and then escape by cutting out through the bottom, all the power to you."

Even if Anna had suddenly gained a fondness for flushing herself down toilets, however that would of work, it wouldn't have mattered. Because by that time the bus was already moving.

We went through a tunnel, the bus dark except for the running lights down aisle. It was eerily quiet.

Mrs. Dodds got up, stating in a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it,, "I need to use the restroom."

"So do I," said the second sister.

"So do I." said the third sister.

…that was unbelievably creepy…

They all started coming down the aisle.

I've got it," Anna said. "Liz, take my hat."

"You're going to let her be invisible!? Grover squeaked, disbelief clear on his face. "Her invisible, you know that's a horrible idea right!?"

"She's the one they want, so she'll turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you, maybe you can get to the front ant and get away.

"But you guys,"

"Without you being here, there is a chance they won't notice us," Anna said. "You're a daughter of the Big Three, your smell might be overpowering/"

"But I just can't leav-"

"Don't; worry about us, " Gorver shoved me out of the seat putting the capon my head. "Go!"

I stumbled into the aisle grabbing my bag as I went. The instance my hand touched it, it turned invisible like the rest of me.

I started to move down the aisle which is hard to do when you can't see were your body is going. I stubbed my toe many time and hit my arms off of seats. I managed to get up ten rows doing this, before I ducked into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.

Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. I froze even though I was invisible.

She looked at me for a few seconds, smirked, and continued to walk down the aisle…what just happened.

I was free! Free I tell you free! Well not really but you understand.

I made it to the front of the bus, and we were almost through the tunnel now. I was just about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hidous wailing from the back row.

The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same, but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and their hands and feet were like gargoyle claws. Their granny handbags had turned into fiery whips.

They surrounded Grover and Anna, lashing their whips, hissing, "Where is it? Where?"

The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.

"She's not here!" Anna yelled. "She's gone!"

They raised their whips.

Anna drew her bronze knife and Grover grabbed a tin can.

So I hit the emergency stop button.

The buses wheels locked making it slide along, screeching out the tunnel. It spun in a circle on the wet asphalt outside the tunnel and then crashed into a tree, bringing it to a stop.

The door flew open, and the bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.

The Furies regained their balance, lashing their whips at Anna while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, Grover continued to throw tin cans.

I ran down the aisle towards them, Riptide sending overjoyed feelings into. Exited about fighting Mrs. Dodds again.

He flowed down my arm changing into two sickles that where attached by a chain. Instincts and Riptide's knowledge took over as I threw one into one of Mrs. Dodds sisters making it stick straight into her back, with a pained screeched she burst into dust. I wonder if Mrs. Dodds is mad at me.

Mrs. Dodds and her remaining sister turned to face me baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like a wonderful idea.

"We may not be able to see you but we can smell you hero!" the sister growled.

I ran down the aisle Mrs. Dodds and her sister chasing me while Anna and Grover followed.

One of the whips lashed out hitting my back, my hoodie threw my balance of when it suddenly hardened and turned to steel in the back, almost making me fall.

I threw one of the sickles back at the other sister while Anna grabbed Mrs. Dodds in a wrestler's hold. Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.

"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!" He bounced it back and forth between his hands.

The sickle I had thrown at Mrs. Dodds sister flew past her making her laugh, "Is that all you go-," she was cut short when I jerked on the chain puling the blade that was spinning in mid air forward, with a wet thump a blade slide through her stomach coming out the front and she burst into golden dust.

Mrs. Dodds was furious, she kicked, clawed, hissed, and bit Anna trying to get out of her hold. But Grover and Anna managed to tie her up with her own whip. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up but there wasn't any room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.

We all ran out of the bus leaving a pissed off Fury behind.

We got out there slipping into the group of tourist who were wandering around in a daze, yelling, and arguing with each other. Riptide purred happily satisfied with the fight radiating happiness as he flowed back down into a bracelet.

"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our-"

BOOOOOOOOM!

Well fuck…


	8. Chapter 8

Authors Note: You know what fuck you Microsoft, I've written the beginning of this story 4 times and it has been deleted 4 times. I'm so fricken annoyed with this part. And every time I rewrite something I always have to add something so the beginning of this chapter just got longer and longer. Any way I've been busy, really busy. Not only was it my birthday last week on Tuesday, but Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and also a very busy one for me since not only is it close to my birthday but I also have to celebrate it and all that jazz. So I've barely had time to write any chapters, and what I did have time to write got deleted over and over again. Which pisses me off beyond belief. That being said I'm going to have a rant at the end of this, you don't have to read it but I have to take my anger out on what happen somewhere and why not here, so go ahead and ignore it I don't care.

So thanks to Raven'sSecretShadowAngel, Jessi Dean, Padfootette, ptl4ever419, gohon ssj4, Amandla123, percyjacksonfan135, Hannahdoodle100, and Lourdes08 for reviewing since last time. And thanks to everyone else who has read and reviewed so far.

Percyjacksonfan135- lets just say it's going to be an incredibly awkward conversation, since Azalea will want to know how that works, haha oh I'm going to have so much fun there. : )

Amandla123- With how I made Luke act towards Azalea, well I couldn't bring myself to make him the villain now. So there will be a new traitor in camp, it will be, at least I hope, a big surprise!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

So what do you think the chances are of lightning hitting something like say, oh, maybe yourself?

Because if you know that Zeus is pissed at you then you should take those chances and multiply them by 1000. Yeah he isn't the most forgiving or nicest guy around.

Lightning shredded through the bus's roof as all the windows exploded outwards, showering glass onto the pavement. Passengers ran screaming, covering their heads with their arms and looking for cover.

An angry wail coming from the bus told me that Mrs. Dodds was still alive, and that she might be a little angry after everything that had just happened.

"Run!" Anna said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"

Ok maybe she was angrier than I thought my bad.

We ran into the woods as rain poured down, behind us the bus was in flames, passengers were running around screaming in terror, and an angry Fury was wailing, as we ran into the dark forest.

You could never even tell we were there.

It's-official-Zeus-has-been-replaced-as-the-King-o f-gods-all-hail-the-new-king-the-mighty-Internet-l ong-live-the-Internet!

In a way knowing that Greek gods are real, is nice. Whenever you're down on your luck and a lightning bolt has just hit your bus after you were just attacked by three old ladies. And all of that happened because some man-child was throwing a massive tantrum over his favorite toy missing and he felt the need to lash out blindly and not think things through like an adult and was instead acting like an impulsive child. Well you know that it was all possible just because there was an asshole in the sky.

So there we were, Anna and Grover and I, braving the wilds. Well the woods outside of New York City, the night sky glowing yellow behind us from the city lights, and the Hudson River smelling rather rancid.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupils and full of terror, "Three Kindly Ones, all three at once."

I was in shock to, since my fricken uncle had just thrown a lightning bolt at me. Which was terrifying, and don't you say a damn thing about me over reacting, it was a fricken lightning bolt! Really who goes around throwing lightning bolts that's just over kill. The only good thing from all this is that I still had my shoulder bag full of stuff, without that we'd have nothing at all besides the clothing on our backs.

Anna kept pulling us along through the woods, saying, "Come on! The further we get the better."

"Almost everything we had is gone, destroyed." Grover groaned.

Anna turned her head to glare at me as we walked, "Maybe is Liz hadn't come back for us…"

"What and let Grover and you get cut to bits? Oh, Grover I'm sorry I didn't go back to help you but don't worry the Fury only killed you I'm sure it's only temporary!" I yelled as a waved my hands around.

"Well you didn't need to protect me, Liz. I would've been fine."

"Cut to shreds and no longer among the living," Grover put in. "But perfectly fine."

"Shut up goat boy," said Anna.

Grover suddenly began to sob softly while he held his head as he walked. "All those cans, that food, gone, destroyed. I-I just-just can't…why?"

"Aww, my favorite goat boy," I cooed at Grover patting his arm comfortingly. "Don't you worry after this we'll go and find the nearest recycling bin and hook you up."

We walked through the woods, the ground muddy beneath our feet, the air smelling like mildew.

After some time, Anna fell back to walk beside me. "Look I…" her voice faltered. "I appreciate you coming back for us, okay? That was really brave of you."

"Were a team, me you and goat boy."

She was silent for a few more steps staring off silently into the woods. "It's just if you died, which would be horrible, but if you did….then the quest would be over."

She sighed running a hand through her hair. "I've-I've been stuck in Camp Half-Blood since I was seven, seven. And while I love the camp and I know I could have it way worse than I do, I just want to see the outside world sometimes. To be truly free for once."

The glow in the sky behind us faded, as we left the city behind. I couldn't see anything of Anna beside the outline of her face.

"I tried living at home you know." Anna said letting out a humorless laugh. "My step-mother didn't like it though. Said I was a danger magnet, that me being around might endanger her darling boys."

"But this quest is my chance to see if all that training is worth it. Were the monsters are real and you can see whether you're any good or not."

I could hear the doubt in her voice as she said it.

"You're pretty good with a knife." I said softly looking away.

"You think so?"

"Hey, anybody who can pull a wrestling move on a Fury then wrap them up in their own whip is cool with me."

For a second the moonlight hit her face and I think I saw her give a small smile.

A noise rang through the forest then, a horrible noise, it sounded like some poor tortured animal in its death throes.

"Hey!" Grover cried. "My reed pipes still work!" he puffed on them again, creating the same noise.

And I wish they didn't.

"With these I can play the 'find path' song and we can get out of the woods that way!" he said excitedly, a wide smile on his face.

…it turns out Grover wasn't the best flute player…

And every living thing in the forest seemed to agree with that. Within ten minutes we had an army of squirrels and chipmunks following us using Grover as target practice, throwing things at him. And then other animals started to show up growling their displeasure at Grover's flute talent, which was terrifying. How was it terrifying you ask? Well, for example one of them was a huge ass bear, and you'd be surprised at how many wolfs live in the forest around New York, a lot we found out. To even start to grasp just how bad Grover's flute talent is to hear, then you might start to understand when you know that the plants where even trying to stop him.

…Plants...

They don't even have ears! That's how bad it was. At this point Anna and I were forced to take the flute from him. Some of the plants had started to kill themselves off, and I couldn't stand by and watch anymore as Grover's music forced flower to uproot themselves and jump into the nearest animals mouth just so they could escape the noise.

We stumbled onto a path a few seconds later; a branch from a tree Grover passed whipped back and swatted his butt particularly hard, sending him face-forward on the path as Grover yelped in pain.

I think were being kicked out of the forest.

After walking the path for a mile or so we started to see light up ahead. A neon red, probably from some sign, showed through the trees and bushes ahead of us. The mildew smell in the air was overpowered with the smell of food. Greasy, fired, you're gunna die from a heart attack food. The type of food I hadn't had in weeks since Camp Half-Blood only had very, very healthy food. Stuff like grapes, cheese, bread, and extra-lean-cut barbecue. Not bad, but it's always nice to have some variety.

We all walked faster towards the smell of goodness. Pushing our way through the last of the bushes blocking the path, some giving Grover a few farewell swings, we saw a deserted two lane road. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990's movie the image worn and faded from weather, and the only remaining business still open.

But it wasn't a fast-food restaurant. It was one of those interesting roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingoes, wooden Indians, cement grizzly bears, and other stuff like that. The building was a long low warehouse, surrounded by hundreds of statues. The neon sign above the gate said 'Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium' across it in bright red.

Flanking the entrance of the building were two gnomes, small and bearded, both smiling and waving like they were about to get their picture taken.

Oh, hell no.

There is no way I'm getting anywhere near that place. It just screams you're gunnna die. A lonely warehouse in the middle of the forest, with all the buildings around it condemned. This was a horror movie just waiting to happen.

"Food," Anna moaned walking towards the open building.

Grover looked like he was about to protest such an action when it happened. Grover in all his goat nose glory managed to smell one certain smell within all the others, a smell he knew well and loved.

Enchiladas.

Another neon sign turned on beside the entrance, a bright neon blue.

'All You Can Eat Enchiladas!'

"Enchildas," Grover yelled.

And with that they both were racing across the street.

Which I didn't mind so much, or I wouldn't have minded so much if it weren't for one small detail.

They were dragging me along with them.

Anna and Grover each held one of my hands pulling me forward, as I dug my heals into the pavement, sliding cross the ground.

"Guy's! Come on this place just screams horror movie, let's think this through for a moment. There is probably some creepy person on the other side of the door that's going to be sickingly nice to us and then when we least suspect it their going to go all psycho killer on our asses."

Grover and Anna kept going, and by force I did too.

"The lights are on inside," Anna said. "Maybe it's open."

"Enchiladas," Grover said wistfully.

"Food," Anna responded nodding happily.

"Are you two crazy?" I said. "This is the point in the horror movie were everyone is telling the victim to not go check the noise or not to go into the creepy haunted house, in this case the creepy restaurant!"

They ignored me.

The front lawn was a forest of statues: cement animals, children, satyr, and people. All of them were in different poses wearing different things, and even creepier were the facial expressions. They all were different, happy, sad, confused, angry, terrified, horror were some of the few expressions plastered on their faces.

We walked past one statue, a satyr playing the pipes, which Grover glanced at for a second and mumbled absently mindedly how it looked like his Uncle Ferdinand.

We stopped at the warehouse door.

"Oh, look no open sign we might as well leave!" I said cheerfully as I spun around and began to pull them back down the steps.

Behind us the door creaked open, a bright yellow light washing across the porch. I flinched from the noise, slowly turning to face the doorway. In it stood a tall woman, she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands. Her eyes glinted behind the veil of black gauze over her eyes as she looked at us. Her hands looked old and wrinkled, but well-manicured and elegant, like an old lady who once looked beautiful.

Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern as she said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"

"They're…um…" Anna started to say.

"We're orphans," I said.

"Orphans?" the woman asked, like the word sounded alien to her. "But, my dears! Surely not!"

"We were on a field trip with our orphanage and the bus broke down. We went off into the woods to explore a little since we live in the city and we've never been able walk around in a real forest. And by the time we got back the bus was gone. We've just called them on our cell phone and were waiting for them outside. So we're perfectly fine now and there is no reason to worry we'll just wait outside." I explained.

"Oh, my dears," the women said. "You must come in, poor children. I'm Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse please. There is a dining area."

They thanked her and walked inside dragging me along with them.

The inside of the place was filled with statues, all of them life size and creepy. I've never liked statues especially life size ones they were even worse, because they looked like they were about to come to life. This paranoia wasn't helped at all when, at a young age younger than now at least, I saw a Doctor Who episode about angel statues... that kill you when you look away. Yeah I've never trusted them since.

But they kept walking ignoring everything for the smell of food. Go ahead and call them idiots for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because of their hunger, I am.

Behind us I heard the lock click in place as Aunty Em closed the door…shit.

Anna and Grover ignored everything; all they cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the building, a fast-food counter with a grill, soda fountain, pretzel heater, nacho cheese dispenser, popcorn machine, and a slushy machine. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.

"Please sit down," Aunty Em said.

"And don't worry since you're orphans this meal is on the house, yes? Since you've all been such polite nice children."

"Thank you, ma'am," Anna said.

Aunty Em stiffened, as if Anna had done something wrong, but she soon relaxed like nothing had happened, but I had noticed.

"Quite alright Annabeth," She said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child." The only problem there was that we had never told her our names. 'Sigh' this place is going to make me have some kind of paranoia panic attack by the end of it.

Our future killer, I mean hostess, disappeared behind the snack counter and started to cook. Before we knew it, she was back carrying us plates full of food. Anna and my own plates had double cheeseburgers with XXL French fries and vanilla shakes. Grover's had extra cheesy enchiladas with onion rings and a large glass of grape juice filled with ice.

Anna and Grover dug right in devouring their food without breathing.

Grover chomped on his enchilada, cheese coming out in long melted strands.

Anna slurped her shake.

And I picked at my food, making it look like I had eaten some of it.

"I could hear a soft hissing like noise that sounded like voices talking. It was coming from Aunty Em's direction.

She wasn't eating anything. She hadn't even taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers watching us eat. It was incredibly unsettling, having her stare at me without being able to see her face. So I tried to make some small talk to ease some of my uneasiness.

"Sooo…. You sell gnomes," I said.

"Oh, yes," Aunty Em responded. "And animals, people, well anything for a garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular you know."

"A lot of business on this road?"

"Not much, no. Since the highway was built… most cars, they don't go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."

I glanced around us at the empty dinner. Behind us was a statue of girl, about the same age as me. She was wearing a dress holding an Easter basket, but her face was frozen in horror.

"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You noticed some of my creations do not turn out well. The face is always the hardest to get right, always the face."

"You make these statues yourself?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passes on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." There was a deep sadness in her voice as she said it, making me almost feel sorry for her.

The only thing stopping me was how much I was freaking out on the inside. This story was weird as was Aunty Em and the statues. An old lady living out in the middle of nowhere, who use to have two other sisters that made statues with her. That might not seem too odd to you but after the bus incident well my paranoia was through the roof and there was a Greek mythology that came to mind, about three sisters turning people or living creatures into stone.

But my luck can't be that bad right?

Ann had stopped eating, and sat forward asking, "Two sisters?"

"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children really. You see, Annabeth, a bad women was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a….a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us part. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price, such a price."

"Umm, guys? Maybe we should get going the bus should almost be here by now." Anna said standing up.

She sounded tense. Grover was starting to tense to, his eyes darting around in worry as he sniffed the air. They both were acting like they had just broken out of some spell.

"Such beautiful grey eyes," Aunty Em told Anna again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen grey eyes like those."

She reached out to stroke Anna's cheek, but Anna jerked back abruptly.

"We really should go."

"Yes!"Grover said. "The headmaster of the orphanage is probably worried!"

"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" Anna said warily.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children. Especially cute ones like you." She said pinching my cheek.

Anna shifted her weight foot to foot. "I don't think we can ma'am. Come on, Liz-"

"Please children," she cooed grabbing my arm and pulling me with her, "What's the harm."

And for an old lady she had a grip like a steel trap, she didn't even seem to notice my resistance against her as I pulled at my arm trying to get free.

Aunty Em pulled me out the front door into the garden of statues, Anna and Grover following us, looking worried.

Riptide was furious, growling angrily at how I was being treated, just itching to come out in weapon form and teach the old lady a lesson on how to treat his wieldier, his meister.

My hoodie seemed to shift slightly on me as if it was getting ready to change into armor in a moment's notice.

The hissing voices were louder than ever, growing more agitated and exited by the minute. I could only catch a few words out of the mass of noises coming from them. Kill, statue, heroes, wisdom, hate, revenge, and goddess.

It didn't make me feel any better that was for sure.

Aunty Em pulled me to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said. "I'll just position you correctly. Little Azalea in the middle, I think, and Annabeth on the left with the young gentleman on the right."

She pushed me onto the bench, so I sat in the middle.

Grover looked over at the statue, horror creeping across his face.

"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "go sit on the bench and look at me."

She didn't have a camera in her hands.

"I don't think-" Anna said.

I stood up from my seat glancing at Aunty Em suspiciously.

"You know, I can't see you very well with this cursed veil on…"

"We should really get going." Anna insisted.

"That is Uncle Ferdinand…" Grover whimpered in fear.

"Look away from her!" Anna shouted, but I was way ahead of her.

Anna whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushing Grover to the ground, but she couldn't reach me. I was already moving before she had said anything.

Riptide snarled with fury in my mind wanting revenge on Aunty Em for how she had treated me. My eyes stayed glued to the ground as I ran to Aunty Em. Gnarled hands replaced the well manicured ones that she use to have, long sharp claws, the color of bronze, replaced her fingernails.

A long scythe appeared in my hands, and I swung it blindly at her, my eyes clenched shut, hoping it would hit. The whole scythe jerked in my hands so it was aimed higher, and I realized that Riptide was adjusting my aim at Aunty Em or Medusa if that's what you want to call her.

With a sickening shlock! Something heavy thumped against the ground, accompanied with the sound of wind rushing through the air, the sound of a monster disintegrating.

What I'm assuming was her head, rolled across the ground bumping into my foot. A warm wet liquid began to ooze through my shoe soaking my sock, and I could feel little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces and pant leg.

I could hear them screeching in pain as they died, and I wondered how Anna and Grover didn't mind their voices as they screamed.

"Ooh, yuck!" Grover said from beside me. His eyes still tightly closed.

In my hand Riptide let out a self-satisfied noise, pleased with itself over killing Medusa after she had dragged me painfully against my will. I sent it a mental thanks for helping me kill her, and like an over grown cat it purred happily at me and flashed warmly in my hands as it melted back into a bracelet on my wrist.

Anna came over and placed the black veil over Medusa's head, and very carefully picked it up; green juice was dripping from it.

"Are you okay?" she asked me voice trembling.

"Yeah…" I said my hands shaking slightly from everything that had happened; I was a little over whelmed at the moment.

All three of us then stumbled back to the warehouse.

We double wrapped Medusa's head with some grocery bags we found behind the counter. Then we plopped onto the table were we'd just eaten dinner too tired to speak.

Grover finally mumbled, "What are we going to do with the head?"

"I'm going to look around." I said standing up.

I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden. The address said DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded it up and put it in my pocket.

In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packaging slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. I took all twelve of them and then I began to rummage around for the right size box.

I went back to the picnic table and asked Anna, "Do you think your mom would be mad if I sent her Medusa head? I mean she wouldn't take it as an insult right?"

Anna seemed to think it over, rubbing her chin. "I don't think so," she finally said. "If you make it clear it's not an insult and is a gift. Medusa's head can still turn you into stone, and while it won't work on a god it can still be easily considered an insult."

I filled out the slip on the package containing Medusa's head.

Athena

Mount Olympus

600th Floor,

Empire State Building

New York, NY

Thought you might enjoy this,

Azalea E. Potter

I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package then floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!

"You know," I said looking over at Anna and Grover. "I don't want to say I told you so but…"

"Liz if you even dare say it I will play the flute pipes for the next hour," Grover threatened.

"Jeez," I said raising my hands in defense. "No need for such extreme threats."

Authors Note: Read this if you want I really don't care, also. I can't wait to reveal my traitor! I'm excited about that and the meeting between Azalea and Hades, just can't wait. Well I don't have to because, I'm the author and you guys are the ones in the dark here but still half the stuff written in this story so far has all just been spontaneous writing. The Fates weren't planned, Azalea's weapon wasn't planned, nearly every scene of this wasn't planned but hey, I'm an author without a plan, makes the writing more umm, fun.

-RANT-

Dear Microsoft

Fuck you. Why you ask? Because this is the fourth time I've written this story fourth time! I'm even typing really loud to get my point across! When I press the fricken save button that means, oh I don't know, that maybe I want it saved! And Microsoft isn't the only thing I'm pissed off at.

Oh, darling computer of mine, fuck you to. Why!? Why do you feel the random need to shut off on me. I know you're a piece of crap but do you have to be such a bitch about it? When you shut off you delete everything, and I do mean everything I've been working on!

Dear sweet zombie Jesus if you keep it up I will drop kick you across the room!

I would write more but I'd rather not get graphic. So good day to you, I said good day!


End file.
